Economist Larry Summers, a former president of Harvard University and top economic policy official under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, is facing increased scrutiny after emails released this week showed he maintained a friendly relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein even after he served a term in prison for soliciting a minor.
The emails, which were released by investigators in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, revealed that Summers regularly conversed with Epstein on a wide range of topics, years after Epstein victims had filed lawsuits against him and his associates that contained lurid details about his alleged underage sex-trafficking ring.
In one email, flagged by writer Jon Schwarz, the then-64-year-old Summers asked Epstein for advice about a woman he appeared to be pursuing, while complaining about her relegating him to being a “friend without benefits.” The email was sent in March of 2019, just months before Epstein would be indicted on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.
Another email, flagged by historian Sam Hasselby, showed Summers’ wife, Harvard English professor Elisa New, recommending that Epstein read the book Lolita byVladimir Nabokov, which is about a middle-aged professor professor who kidnaps and sexually abuses a 12-year-old girl. New described the book to Epstein as the story of “a man whose whole life is stamped forever by his impression of a young girl.”
In a statement given to the Harvard Crimson, Summers called his relationship with Epstein one of the “great regrets in my life,” and “a major error of judgement.”
This acknowledgement was not enough to satisfy the government watchdog group Revolving Door Project, which on Thursday said Summers should lose his positions at Harvard, where he is currently a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, and at the OpenAI Foundation, where he currently sits as a member of its board of directors.
Revolving Door Project Executive Director Jeff Hauser said that the emails showed “a close personal bond between the two men, long after Epstein’s conviction for sex crimes against minors” and added that “it is well past time for the powerful institutions that work closely with Summers—including OpenAI—to distance themselves from him, and anyone with a close relationship to Epstein.”
Hauser also emphasized that Summers’ years-long relationship with Epstein was not a one-time moral lapse but part of a long history of unethical behavior.
“I have previously warned about Summers’ unethical behavior and ties to unsavory businesses, but these latest revelations ought to be the final straw,” he said. “It is disgusting that Summers has played such a crucial role in government at one of America’s premier universities for so long. Companies and institutions affiliated with him—including the world’s most influential AI company, and two of the nation’s premier news outlets—ought to demand his immediate resignation.”
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