Larry Summers, one of America’s most prominent economists, has faced escalating professional consequences following the public release of emails showing he maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein years after the financier pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
Summers served as U.S. Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001 and later as president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. At the time the emails were made public, he was a Harvard professor and director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Kennedy School.
The emails, released as part of broader disclosures related to Epstein, included exchanges in which Summers appeared to seek advice from Epstein about pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman who viewed him as an “economic mentor.” In a November 2018 message, Epstein wrote, “im a pretty good wing man , no?” In another exchange, after Summers described an interaction with the woman, Epstein replied, “you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring. , no whining showed strentgh.”
Summers’ wife, Elisa New, also corresponded with Epstein, including a 2015 message thanking him for arranging financial support for a poetry project she directs.
After the emails became public, Summers went on leave from teaching and from his leadership role at the Kennedy School center. He said his association with Epstein was “a major error in judgement” and added, “I have great regrets in my life.”
The American Economic Association said it had accepted Summers’ resignation and banned him for life from “attending, speaking at, or otherwise participating” in its events, calling his conduct, as reflected in publicly reported communications, “fundamentally inconsistent” with its standards of professional integrity. The Center for American Progress confirmed he was ending his fellowship, and the Budget Lab at Yale said he was no longer a member of its advisory group.
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he would ask the Justice Department and FBI to investigate Epstein’s ties to Summers, former President Bill Clinton and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Attorney General Pam Bondi later said she had ordered a top federal prosecutor to lead an investigation into Epstein’s connections to several public figures.
Amid a campus review of his relationship with Epstein, Harvard announced that Summers would retire from his academic and faculty appointments at the end of the academic year and remain on leave until that time.
“Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues,” Summers said.
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