Larry Summers, the former Harvard University president and past U.S. treasury secretary, has announced he will “step back from public commitments” following the release of emails revealing his continued friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein long after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. The emails, some from as late as 2019, quickly became political ammunition in Washington, where President Donald Trump has seized on the scandal to demand federal investigations.
Summers said he would continue to teach and sought to “rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.” He added: “I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”
Institutional fallout: Pressure mounts on Summers’ roles
The repercussions have already been swift. The Center for American Progress confirmed that Summers was “ending his fellowship at CAP,” and the Budget Lab at Yale said he was no longer on its advisory group. However, questions remain over his position on the board of OpenAI. The company declined to comment and referred enquiries to Summers’ spokesperson, who said she had nothing to add “beyond his statement.”
Summers joined the OpenAI board in November 2023, brought in as part of an effort to stabilise the organisation after the dramatic ousting and reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman.
Trump turns Epstein’s network into a political weapon
The most consequential development, however, is political. The controversy escalated after President Trump posted on Truth Social that he intended to ask the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Summers’ relationship with Epstein, alongside former President Bill Clinton and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. Attorney General Pam Bondi subsequently said she had appointed a top federal prosecutor to lead the inquiry.
This move underscores how Epstein’s network—long a source of public fascination and anger—has become a powerful tool in partisan combat. In Summers, Trump has found a high-profile Democratic-aligned economist whose association with Epstein can be used to cast a wider cloud over elite liberal institutions.
Why the emails are politically useful
The emails released last week show the level of personal comfort between Summers and Epstein. In one 2019 exchange, Summers described a conversation with a woman: “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy’. I said awfully coy u are.” Epstein replied: “you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring. , no whining showed strentgh.”
Such exchanges offer Trump and his allies a narrative opportunity: portraying members of the Democratic establishment as intertwined with a convicted sex offender’s social orbit even after his guilty plea. Summers himself acknowledged this, saying his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgement.”
Elite networks under fresh scrutiny
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on new sex trafficking charges. But the emails deepen questions about why influential figures continued to interact with him after 2008. As Harvard student Thomas King put it, the revelations are “shocking” but also “indicative of the kind of political environment that we now live in in 21st century U.S.” He added: “It’s really surprising to hear that someone of such high esteem can continued to be associated with that man. But I suppose we’re gonna have a lot of stories like this over the course of the next few months.”
Political and academic repercussions likely to grow
Summers served as treasury secretary under President Clinton and was Harvard’s president from 2001 to 2006. He now teaches and directs the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Calls for stronger action are rising, including from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who told CNN that Harvard should sever ties with him, saying he “cannot be trusted” with students. “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,” she said.
With Trump now driving federal investigations into elite figures connected to Epstein, the Summers emails have become more than a personal scandal—they are a political tool in a broader battle over credibility, influence and accountability in American public life.
(With AP inputs)
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