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Larry Summers resigns from Harvard after Epstein files revelations
Former Harvard University president and economist Larry Summers will resign from his teaching role at the end of the academic year, just months after his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was revealed through a federal document disclosure.
Summers has been on leave from the school since November, and will not be returning to the university before his final day, according to the New York Times.
The economist and former Treasury Secretary under the Clinton administration has also resigned from his role as co-director of the Mossava-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, according to a Harvard spokesperson.
Jason Newton, the spokesperson, confirmed to the Times that Summers’ resignation comes “in connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government.”
The news of Summers’ resignation was first reported in The Harvard Crimson, the school’s newspaper.
Summers issued a statement saying he has made the “difficult decision” to retire, adding that he will “always be grateful to the thousands of students and colleagues I have been privileged to reach and work with since coming to Harvard as a graduate student 50 years ago.”
He said that he will now look forward to “engaging in research, analysis and commentary on a range of global economic issues.”
Summers’ links to Epstein weren’t unknown, but his closeness to accused child sex trafficker only became clear after the federal government released a trance of Epstein’s emails in November.
Summers has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to his friendship with Epstein.
The documents capture private moments between the men, including friendly banter about a Summer’s alleged romantic interest in a woman who was not his wife. Elsewhere, Epstein described himself as Summers’ “wingman.”
In a 2019 email, Summers complained to Epstein that a woman he was interested in was involved with another man.
“I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy,’” he wrote. “I said awfully coy u are.”
Epstein responded, saying “shes smart. making you pay for past errors. ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy, you reacted well.”
Summers also appeared to use a racist term in one exchange to refer to his attraction to an Asian woman.
“I’d be happy to have a rational affair w yellow peril,” he wrote in the message. Moments before that message, he wrote that he was “way smitten with her so woukd sacrifuce (sic) lots for being w her.”
The men were having conversations as recently as 2019, more than a decade after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a child. Summers’ and Epstein’s correspondence continued until July 5, 2019, just a day before Epstein was arrested and charged with child sex trafficking, NBC News reports.
After the November document dump, Summers issued a statement acknowledging the emails and expressing regret for his association with Epstein. He said he was “deeply ashamed” and would take “full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”
Shortly after the messages were made public, Summers retreated from public life and stepped down from the board of directors of the OpenAI Foundation. OpenAI is the company that developed ChatGPT.
“In line with my announcement to step away from my public commitments, I have also decided to resign from the board of OpenAI,” he said in a statement at the time. “I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress.”
In December, Summers was banned for life from the American Economic Association due to his ties to Epstein. The group said late last year that it accepted Summers’ voluntary resignation.
“Effective immediately, the AEA has imposed a lifetime prohibition on Mr. Summers’ attending, speaking at, or otherwise participating in AEA-sponsored events or activities, including serving in any editorial or refereeing capacity for AEA journals,” it said in a statement at the time.
The Independent has requested comment from Summers.
Harvard has launched an investigation into its own ties to Epstein, including a review of both donors and employees who might have been close to the disgraced financier.
The university launched a similar probe in 2020, which reportedly turned up only one explicit reference to Mr Summers. The report found that Summers had helped start a program pitched by Epstein.