Larry Summers, First Casualty of the Epstein Files, Says He’s ‘Deeply Ashamed’
“The documents showed the two men continued to exchange messages as late as July 5, 2019, which was just one day before Epstein’s arrest on new sex-trafficking charges.”
Democrats may live to regret their insistence on releasing the Epstein files as one of their own — Harvard University President Emeritus and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers — has emerged as the first casualty. Emails released last week by the House Oversight Committee revealed that Summers continued his correspondence with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein for seven years after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Summers issued a statement to The Harvard Crimson on Monday night, saying he was “deeply ashamed” and announcing he would pause all public engagements as he works to “rebuild trust and repair relationships.”
He wrote:
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. While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.
Fox News reported:
The documents showed the two men continued to exchange messages as late as July 5, 2019, which was just one day before Epstein’s arrest on new sex-trafficking charges.
In the hundreds of messages released, Summers also appeared to place trust in Epstein and confided to him about his pursuit of a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee.
Among the released messages was one from November 2018 in which Epstein describes himself as Summers’ “wing man,” as he continued advising Summers on the relationship for months.
https://twitter.com/Michael7ucci/status/1990400761440686500
Summers’ Democratic friends appear to be turning on him. Asked for comment by CNN, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a former Harvard Law School professor, issued a statement which read:
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. 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.
After CNN reached out to the Center for American Progress, a think tank where Summers serves as a senior fellow, a spokesperson responded with the following statement: “Larry Summers has announced that he is stepping away from public commitments immediately, and this includes ending his fellowship at CAP.”
According to CNN, Summers was scheduled to speak at a virtual event for The Economic Club of New York on Wednesday. In a Monday email to registered attendees, the club announced that the event has been postponed due to an “unavoidable change in schedule.”
When CNN asked if “the postponement was influenced by the Epstein revelations, a club spokeswoman reiterated that it was ‘due to an unavoidable change in schedule.'”
The Harvard Crimson published an article titled Harvard Faculty Disturbed by Revelations of Summers’ ‘Cozy Friendship’ With Epstein.
The piece quotes Rachel M. McCleary, a lecturer in the Economics department, where Summers still teaches. She said the current revelations amount to “not just one lapse,” but rather a “character flaw.”
Summers is only the first domino to fall. Because Epstein was a Democrat, it’s likely that most of his contacts are also.
I’m not entirely sure why Democrats pushed so aggressively for the Epstein files to be released. Those hoping the documents contain something explosive enough to destroy President Trump may be setting themselves up for disappointment. The Biden administration had access to the files for four years, during which time officials searched for anything that could block Trump from running in 2024. If they had found even a hint of wrongdoing in those files, it would have been leaked to the press immediately.
When Trump reversed course this summer on his earlier promise to release the files, he said doing so would expose victims’ identities and unfairly tarnish the reputations of people who may have had nothing more than a business association with Epstein. Democrats assumed he was lying and only intensified their demands.
Perhaps they pressed the issue, believing Trump would never actually release the documents and that they could continue taunting him over it. But in the end, he called their bluff.
[Featured image via YouTube]
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
Well, he’s deeply ashamed that he got found out. Will he bear the shame of the entire Democrat establishment?
Shame and Democrats do not go together. They support islamist communists, Nazis and guys who wish death on children.
I was not aware talking to someone was illegal. If a person goes to prison, serves the time and gets out are you not allowed to ever speak to them again? Is that the new standard and if so, what is prison for?
Nobody made it illegal.
If Bernie Madoff goes to prison and serves his time, you are definitely allowed to invest with him again.
You’re just a stone jackass for doing it, and you don’t deserve other people’s trust.
Sen Warren gonna now be asked to apply that same standard to Hakeem Jefferies who solicited a meeting and campaign contributions well after the ’08 guilty plea. IOW he wanted $ from a known predator. Then there’s Delegate Stacey Plaskett who was live texting Epstein in ’19 during hearing while Epstein was sitting in custody.
Or apply any standard of integrity at all to her career grift scandal as Lieawatha.
Yep. Gonna be hoot watching the contortions of the d/prog/legacy media to defend the associations of politicians, prominent people, big donors, campaign bundlers and others who refused to sever interactions with Epstein post ’08 guilty plea.
to stir the pot a bit:
should I think any less of Mother Church and the success of her world-wide mission due to the sexual quirks of a few priests?
should I think any less of a man”s achievements due to his sexual quirks
Does one totally negate the other?
Graping young girls is NOT a sexual “quirk!”
I think paracelsus is talking about Summers who was actually trying to score with some other academic, not one of Epstein’s girls. Summers showed bad judgement in keeping contact with Epstein but AFAIK there’s no indication he participated in any activities with underage girls.
This is gonna be a problem for some men who had unwise or even totally legitimate contact with Epstein. Any sympathy I have for them, however, is greatly diminished by the fact that it’s exactly what the Democrats tried to do with Trump. It should be noted that in all of this there has been not one revelation, aside from the “birthday card”, where Trump and Epstein are communicating directly. Virtually every instance of Trump appearing in the “Epstein Files” has been because Epstein was obsessed with damaging Trump.
This is gonna be a torpedo-circling exercise just like #MeToo back in 2016 was supposed to legitimize women making wild allegations about Trump’s behavior but wound up taking down multiple Democrats.
well I agree
we have to admit there is a double standard in our “belief” system
we act as if young females dont want sex and only young males do
notttt talking about forcing ones self onto anyone else at any age let alone a 15yo
but why is there a general consensus/denial that young females dont want sex??
Whataboutism?
Everyone complicit in covering up those acts is evil.
However, your analogy though is that we should no longer have a government (an institution analogous to the church) because some politicians and their party members were evil (individuals and/or sectors analogous to evil clergy and their corrupt allies)
Jefferies and Plaskett get passes. Blak privilege.
If it leads to Hoffman, how nice.
It need not be criminal, but revelatory. The hardest part will be getting the legacy media to cover it, even as it’s red meat dripping with blood..
Trump playing 4D chess. Epstein files were sealed by dem judge to protect dems. So trump baited media and public to demand release.
” So trump baited media and public to demand release.”
*****
Trump playing “Please don’t throw me in the Briar Patch”…….again
I downvoted by accident…not that I disagree but by mistake. I don’t think there is any 4D chess taking place. Trump knew he was not involved just to call bluffs and watch panic backfire.
^^^^this^^^^^^^
If Mr. Summers wishes to atone, he should read about the Profumo Affair in Britain. Mr. Profumo, a Cabinet minister found to be indiscrete with a woman who was also involved with a Soviet naval officer, retired completely from public life and spent the rest of his days working quietly, without attention, for a local charity. There’s the example for you, Mr. Summers.
It’s always nice to see a Demoncrat brought to justice!
Nothing will happen to him as he isn’t the right target.
If Larry was looking to score he would have been better off with Andrew Tate as his sexual advisor.
Names that never will be seen in headlines as casualties of the Epstein Files: Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Chief Justice John Robert’s (too harsh?), etc…………
I’m pretty sure Belinda Gates divorced creepy Bill exactly because it was revealed he was a frequent guest on the Lolita Express. Their divorce was one of the most expensive in history.
Interestingly it didn’t bother you at the time.
his defense:
I was just trying to help her with her math homework
“I’m not entirely sure why Democrats pushed so aggressively for the Epstein files to be released. Those hoping the documents contain something explosive enough to destroy President Trump may be setting themselves up for disappointment.”
Because now they’ll never be authenticated. Democrats can always just claim that Trump removed anything negative about him. And if Trump denies it, of course he would. That’s exactly what a guilty person would say.
And anything negative about a Democrat in there? They can just say Trump added it. And when Trump denies it, of course he did. That’s exactly what a guilty person would say.
We’re in exactly the same situation that we were before these were released. Except now they can claim that Trump did whatever they want AND get to claim that he’s covering it up by removing the documents that pertain to him, added documents about Democrats, etc.
No real down side for democrats no matter how this turns out.