Ex-Harvard President Retreats From Public Life After Epstein Correspondence Revealed

Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University and Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton, announced he would step back from public engagements to “rebuild trust and repair relationships” following the release of extensive correspondence between him and the late convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

The statement, published by The Harvard Crimson, follows the U.S. House Oversight Committee’s disclosure of seven years of emails showing regular contact between Summers and Epstein through mid‑2019, shortly before Epstein’s arrest on sex trafficking charges. The newly released 20,000 pages of documents depict a close personal and professional rapport. Summers confided in Epstein about his romantic life — referring to one woman as a “mentee”— and received advice Epstein jokingly signed as his “wing man.”

In some 2017 messages, Summers made controversial remarks about women’s intelligence, echoing past statements that contributed to his 2006 resignation as Harvard’s president. The correspondence also reveals that Epstein volunteered to fund up to $500,000 for Poetry in America, an educational project run by Summers’ wife, Harvard English professor emerita Elisa New. The financier had previously donated $110,000 to New’s nonprofit in 2016.

Summers expressed remorse in his statement, calling his continued contact with Epstein a “major error of judgment.” He wrote that he was “deeply ashamed” and accepted full responsibility for his “misguided decision to continue communicating” with the convicted sex offender. Despite stepping back from public appearances, Summers will retain his faculty role at Harvard as University Professor and director of the Mossavar‑Rahmani Center for Business and Government. He will also remain on the board of OpenAI and continue writing for Bloomberg News, though his spokesman confirmed he will scale back other professional commitments.

The correspondence has reignited longstanding scrutiny surrounding Summers’ ties to Epstein, who had donated millions to Harvard during Summers’ presidency and remained in contact with him after his 2008 conviction. Earlier reports, including those from The Wall Street Journal, had shown that Summers asked Epstein for fundraising assistance for News’ projects. The newly public messages now provide the most detailed glimpse into how Epstein could have maintained influence within Harvard’s orbit years after the school claimed to have severed ties.

Reaction has been swift. A senior Trump administration official called on institutions to sever ties with Summers, questioning why he remains in prominent academic and corporate roles. Comparisons were made to the British government’s dismissal of Ambassador Peter Mandelson over similar Epstein links.

Bloomberg, OpenAI, and Harvard declined to comment.