Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University, will immediately leave his teaching role at the Ivy League after a tranche of emails between him and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released.
“His co-teachers will complete the remaining three class sessions of the courses he has been teaching with them this semester, and he is not scheduled to teach next semester,” a spokesperson for Summers told The Harvard Crimson Wednesday.
Harvard University has launched an urgent investigation into the emails and his ties with Epstein, whom he contacted as recently as 2019.
Summers will also go on leave from his role as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, with Summers’ spokesperson saying it was “in the best interest of the Center...as Harvard undertakes its review.”
The economist has also resigned from the board of OpenAI and Santander Bank’s international advisory board.
A few days ago, Summers, who also served as former President Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary and former President Barack Obama’s director of the National Economic Council, stepped back from all upcoming public engagements.
"In line with my announcement to step away from my public commitments, I have also decided to resign from the board of OpenAI," Summers said in a statement. "I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company and look forward to following their progress."
Summers joined OpenAI’s board of directors in 2023.
He signed on to the company, now worth an estimated $750 billion, during a turbulent period when co-founder Sam Altman was briefly ousted as CEO.
"We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board," a statement read.
Reuters reported Summers’ resignation from Santander’s international advisory board, which he chaired after becoming a member in 2016.
Summers' retreat from public life comes after it was revealed that he repeatedly contacted Epstein from November 2018 to July 2019, asking the disgraced financier for relationship advice.
Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
Summers and Epstein’s correspondence was included in the text messages and emails released earlier this month by the House Oversight Committee, shortly before Congress voted to release the Epstein files in full.
In emails, Summers expressed concern that an unnamed woman was hesitant to end their relationship because she valued his “professional connection.”
Since 2005, Summers has been married to PBS’ Poetry in America host Elisa New.
In response, Epstein, describing himself as Summers’ “wing man,” said the unnamed woman was “doomed to be with you.”
“Think for now I’m going nowhere with her except economics mentor,” Summers wrote in November 2018. “I think I’m right now in the seen very warmly in rear view mirror category.”
A spokesperson for Summers told The Harvard Crimson that the unnamed woman was never a student of Summers's at the prestigious university.
In another message, Summers forwarded an email from a colleague which asked for feedback. He told Epstein that it was “probably appropriate” to delay his response.
“She’s already begining to sound needy :) nice,” replied Epstein, in a chilling message.
When approached by The Crimson about the messages, Summers said that he had “great regrets in my life.”
“As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement,” he added.
Summers was not in office as Harvard's president when sending the emails, but a 2003 article by The Harvard Crimson detailed a “special connection” between the then-president and Epstein. According to the article, Epstein had donated $30 million as part of a “series of donations” made “anonymously.”
In other emails, seen by the BBC, Summers said he was “best off a million miles away” from President Donald Trump, due to the now-president’s “Putin proximity,” “mindless response” to Fidel Castro’s death, and his “approach to conflict of interest.”
Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain told The Crimson that “the University is conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents to evaluate what actions may be warranted.”
The sweeping investigation will also look into other people named in the emails who have a connection with Harvard, including Summers’s wife.
Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in relation to the Jeffrey Epstein case and says that he threw the sex offender out of his Mar-a-Lago club for being a “sick pervert.”
Messages written by Epstein alleged that Trump “knew about the girls,” something the president has directly refuted by saying, “I know nothing about that.”
But the commander-in-chief has called for an investigation into Summers and Bill Clinton.
“Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem!” he raged on Truth Social. “Ask Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, and Larry Summers about Epstein, they know all about him, don’t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!”
Hoffman, who said he only had contact with Epstein while fundraising for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote on X last week, “Trump should release all of the Epstein files: every person and every document in the files.”
The Independent has contacted OpenAI, Larry Summers, Harvard University, and The Clinton Foundation for comment.
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