Former Treasury Secretary and Harvard professor Larry Summers announced Monday that he will step back from public commitments following the release of emails showing extensive communication between him and Jeffrey Epstein, as reported [1] by The New York Post.
The documents, released last week by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, included messages exchanged well after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea in Florida for sex crimes and up until his July 2019 arrest on federal child sex trafficking charges.
Oh Shizzles 👀
Former Harvard President Larry Summers announced he will be stepping back from all public commitments in an effort “to rebuild trust after documents showed he asked Jeffrey Epstein for advice on pursuing an affair with a female mentee. “I am deeply ashamed of my… pic.twitter.com/S0LZfVSQrI [2]
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) November 18, 2025 [3]
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” Summers said in a statement obtained by The Post. “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”
Summers repeated those remarks in the statement and said stepping away from public commitments is “one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.”
The 70-year-old said he will continue to “fulfill my teaching obligations” at Harvard.
🚨 BREAKING: After President Trump orders DOJ investigation into Larry Summers relations with Epstein, Summers RESIGNS from the board of OpenAI and STEPS BACK from activities at Harvard.
He’s SWEATING.
Democrats are silent. pic.twitter.com/yErBQEQy9J [4]
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 19, 2025 [5]
Alongside his role at the Ivy League university, Summers serves on the board of directors for OpenAI and Skillsoft, is a Bloomberg columnist, contributes guest essays to the New York Times, and is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, among other positions.
The documents released by the oversight panel showed that Summers and Epstein exchanged hundreds of emails between 2013 and 2019, discussing topics including women, politics, and Harvard-related matters.
In one October 2017 email, Summers wrote to Epstein, “I observed that half the IQ in world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population,” without additional context provided in the documents.
In a March 2019 exchange, Summers asked Epstein for advice about a woman he was pursuing, writing, “I dint want to be in a gift giving competition while being the friend without benefits,” and adding, “she must be very confused or maybe wants to cut me off but wants professional connection a lot and so holds to it.”
