Harvard To Launch New Investigation Into Epstein’s Ties to Summers, Other University Affiliates

Harvard will open a new probe into former University President Lawrence H. Summers’ connections with convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein, after newly released documents revealed the two shared an unusually close relationship for several years, a Harvard spokesperson confirmed Tuesday night.

The investigation — which marks an extraordinary step to revisit Harvard’s ties with Epstein following a landmark 2020 review — will also look into all other University affiliates implicated across the thousands of documents released by the House of Representatives last Wednesday, including Summers’ wife and nearly a dozen other Harvard affiliates past and present.

Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain wrote in a statement to 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 probe will cover any new information revealed in the Wednesday files, including the hundreds of messages Summers and Epstein exchanged over women, politics, and Harvard-related initiatives.

Several other prominent Harvard faculty appeared in the documents, including Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan M. Dershowitz and English professor emerita Elisa F. New, who is married to Summers.

The move comes two days after The Crimson reported a series of back-and-forth exchanges between Summers and Epstein that continued through July 5, 2019 — just one day before the disgraced financier was arrested over new federal sex-trafficking charges.

In the messages, Summers sought Epstein’s advice for his pursuit of a romantic relationship with a woman he described as his mentee, asking Epstein to workshop his messages and help guide him through his interactions with the woman.

Epstein often replied within minutes, going as far as calling himself Summers’ “wing man” in one November 2018 message.

“She must be very confused or maybe wants to cut me off but wants professional connection a lot and so holds to it,” Summers wrote in a March 2019 exchange to Epstein.

Late Monday night, Summers announced that he would withdraw from public commitments but continue his teaching obligations. By Tuesday, he had resigned or been let go from roles with several large organizations, including his positions at Bloomberg and the New York Times, as well as the Center for American Progress think tank.

Swain did not respond to a request for comment on whether Summers would be sanctioned from teaching while the probe is ongoing.

The cache of documents released last week added to a long paper trail detailing ties between Epstein and prominent Harvard affiliates.

In the documents, New discussed her personal projects at length with Epstein, soliciting thousands of dollars in funding from the child sex trafficker several times — years after Harvard said it had stopped taking contributions from Epstein.

In one 2014 exchange, New and Epstein discussed a potential $500,000 gift to Poetry in America, a television show and digital initiative she spearheaded. She also accepted an unspecified amount of money from Leon Black, an executive at private equity giant Apollo, in a gift that she wrote Epstein helped broker.

“It really means a lot to me, all financial help aside, Jeffrey, that you are rooting for me and thinking about me,” she wrote in December 2015.

Harvard’s new probe comes years after the University issued its earlier report into ties to Epstein, finding that Epstein donated around $9 million to the school between 1998 and 2008. In response, Harvard agreed to adopt new guidelines on accepting potentially controversial gifts and revise its procedures for appointing visiting fellows, a one-year non-degree-seeking research position that Epstein held in 2005 under Summers’ presidency.

​​—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.