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.
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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