The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
Former Treasury Secretary and Harvard professor Larry Summers has announced he’s stepping back from public life after troubling emails between him and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released.
While much of the focus on the Epstein email dump from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee last week has been on the mentions of President Donald Trump, other notable figures in the disgraced financier’s electronic communications have raised eyebrows, including Summers.
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” Summers told Politico Monday. “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”
The economist continued: “While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.”
open image in gallery
Former Treasury Secretary and Harvard professor Larry Summers has announced he’s stepping back from public life after troubling emails between him and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Summers, who previously served in the Clinton and Obama administrations and as president of Harvard, communicated with Epstein after he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
“I observed that half of the IQ In world was possessed by women,” Summers wrote to Epstein in October 2017, “without mentioning that they are more than 51 percent of the population.”
In text and email exchanges between November 2018 and July 2019, Summers sought advice from Epstein on romantically pursuing a woman he described as a mentee, The Harvard Crimson reported.
In a November 2018 message, Epstein called himself Summers’ “wing man.” Summers has been married since 2005.
open image in gallery
The House of Representatives is expected to hold a vote on forcing the Justice Department to release the rest of the so-called Epstein files as soon as Tuesday (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Summers told The Harvard Crimson that the woman described in Epstein’s communications was never the professor’s student.
The Independent has reached out to Summers about The Harvard Crimson’s reporting.
The House of Representatives is expected to hold a vote on forcing the Justice Department to release the rest of the so-called Epstein files as soon as Tuesday. If it passes the House and Senate, Trump said he would sign it into law — a shift in his opposition to the measure.
Trump has called the controversy surrounding the Epstein files a Democrat hoax and requested Justice Department investigations into prominent Democratic ties to Epstein, including Summers.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and former Harvard professor, has called on the Ivy League school to cut ties with Summers.
open image in gallery
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and former Harvard professor, has called on the Ivy League school to cut ties with Summers (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Families Over Billionaires)
“For decades, Larry Summers has demonstrated his attraction to serving the wealthy and well-connected, but his willingness to cozy up to a convicted sex offender demonstrates monumentally bad judgment,” Warren told CNN.
She continued: “If he had so little ability to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein even after all that was publicly known about Epstein’s sex offenses involving underage girls, then Summers cannot be trusted to advise our nation’s politicians, policymakers, and institutions — or teach a generation of students at Harvard or anywhere else.”
The Independent has reached out to Harvard for comment.
