Larry SummersCameron Costa | CNBC

Jeffrey Epstein files: Larry Summers steps back from public commitments over email fallout

by · CNBC

Key Points

  • Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said he was stepping back from all public commitments amid fallout from the release of emails between him and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
  • "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," Summers said.
  • Summers is a board member of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company, and is a former president of Harvard University.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said Monday that he was stepping back from all public commitments amid fallout from the release of emails between him and the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"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," Summers said in a statement obtained by CNBC.

"While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort," said Summers, a former president of Harvard University who teaches at the school.

Summers is a member of the board of OpenAI. He is also a columnist for Bloomberg News.

CNBC has requested comment from OpenAI.

Summer's statement came after Harvard's newspaper, the Crimson, published an article detailing his emails with Epstein, which came to light last week when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released more than 20,000 documents it obtained pursuant to a subpoena from Epstein's estate.

U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry March 28, 2017 and obtained by Reuters July 10, 2019.New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services | Handout | Reuters

The Crimson noted that when Summers was "pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he sought guidance from a longtime associate: convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein."

Emails and texts between the two men from November 2018 and July 2019, showed Summers, who was and is married, turning "to Epstein for advice on his pursuit of the woman," the paper reported.

That time frame was a decade after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida state court to solicitation of prostitution from an underage girl.

In the emails and texts, "Epstein was quick to chime in with assurance and suggestions, describing himself in one November 2018 message as Summers' 'wing man.' " the Crimson noted.

"Think for now I'm going nowhere with her except economics mentor," Summers wrote that same month. "I think I'm right now in the seen very warmly in rear view mirror category."

"She must be very confused or maybe wants to cut me off but wants professional connection a lot and so holds to it."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and a former professor at Harvard Law, told CNN that Harvard should sever its ties to Summers.

Summer is the director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, and this semester is teaching five courses at Harvard, the Crimson noted.

Warren said Summers "cannot be trusted" with students, given his past relationship with Epstein.

"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," Warren told CNN.

Read more about the Epstein files

"If he had so little ability to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein even after all that was publicly known about Epstein's sex offenses involving underage girls, then Summers cannot be trusted to advise our nation's politicians, policymakers, and institutions — or teach a generation of students at Harvard or anywhere else."

On Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi, acting on a request from President Donald Trump, said she had asked Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to investigate Epstein's relationships with Summers, former President Bill Clinton, billionaire tech investor Reid Hoffman, and the bank JPMorgan Chase.

Trump himself is a former friend of Epstein. The president has been criticized for months for the Department of Justice's refusal to release investigative files related to Epstein, who killed himself in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on federal child sex trafficking charges.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday is set to vote on a measure that would force the DOJ to release the Epstein files.