Former Treasury Secretary's Troubling Epstein Connection Revealed
Recently disclosed correspondence has exposed the extent of the relationship between former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The emails, made public by Republican lawmakers this week, reveal the two men acted as close confidantes, sharing personal views on politics and relationships between 2013 and early 2019.
Disturbing Email Exchanges
The communications show Summers, who served as Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton and later directed Barack Obama's National Economic Council, exchanging remarkably candid messages with Epstein. In one particularly troubling 2017 email, Summers questioned why Harvard University would admit a formerly incarcerated woman while denying opportunities to those accused of sexual misconduct.
"I'm trying to figure why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard," Summers wrote to Epstein. "But hit on a few women 10 years ago and can't work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT."
This exchange occurred while Harvard was grappling with an admissions controversy, and came from a man who had previously lost his position as Harvard president after making sexist comments about female academics.
Ongoing Relationship Despite Conviction
The documents confirm that Summers maintained contact with Epstein long after the financier's 2008 guilty plea for child sex offences. Their correspondence continued until mere months before Epstein's 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. The final email exchange occurred in March 2019, just months before Epstein died in jail.
In one 2019 message, Summers confided in Epstein about his romantic life, detailing how he had been rebuffed by an unnamed woman. Epstein responded with relationship advice, telling Summers: "shes smart. making you pay for past errors... ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy, you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring., no whining showed strentgh."
Philanthropic Connections and Fallout
The relationship extended beyond personal correspondence. According to Wall Street Journal reporting, Epstein donated more than $9 million to Harvard and affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008. The university later acknowledged Epstein "lacked the academic qualifications visiting fellows typically possess" but continued accepting his donations until after his 2008 conviction.
After Summers left the White House, he sought Epstein's philanthropic advice for projects connected to his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor. Epstein's foundations made donations to these initiatives, and the two men met approximately a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
Following previous revelations about these connections, a spokesperson for Summers told the Harvard Crimson this week: "I have great regrets in my life. As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement."
The email release has prompted former President Donald Trump to call for an investigation into Epstein's relationships with Summers and other prominent figures, ensuring this political scandal will continue to generate controversy.
