Larry Summers is set to step down from his academic positions at Harvard University following the conclusion of this scholastic year, as revealed on Wednesday.
Summers, who maintained a personal relationship with the infamous financier Jeffrey Epstein, will relinquish his University Professorship, a prestigious honor bestowed upon notable academics at the Ivy League institution.
The renowned economist described the choice to part ways with Harvard as ‘difficult,’ according to a report by the Harvard Crimson.
Although Summers did not specify the reasons behind his exit, he has been under heavy scrutiny following the release of numerous documents by the Department of Justice that link him to Epstein.
The documents include exchanges discussing politics and women, with Summers maintaining correspondence with Epstein up until the financier’s final arrest in 2019, years after Epstein’s conviction for soliciting minors.
Additionally, Summers and his spouse, Lisa New, made a visit to Epstein’s Little Saint James island in December 2005, merely ten days following their wedding.
The honeymoon trip happened while Summers was still Harvard president, according to publicly available flight logs.
Summers’ visit was six months after Palm Beach police began investigating Epstein over the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl.
The economist said the decision to leave the institution was ‘difficult.’ It comes after a cache of documents exposing his long-time friendship with Epstein was made public in the files
Summers spent part of his honeymoon in December 2005 visiting Epstein’s Little Saint James island
A spokesperson for Summers previously said: ‘Mr. Summers and Ms. New spent their honeymoon in St. John and Jamaica in December 2005, which was long before Mr. Epstein was arrested for the first time.’
‘As part of that trip, they made a brief visit of less than a day to Mr. Epstein’s island.’
Summers will remain on leave, as he has been since November, until his resignation takes effect at the end of the academic year.
In the meantime, the former Treasury Secretary will not teach any classes or take on new advisees at the university.
Summers’ decision to step down was ‘in connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government,’ Harvard spokesman Jason Newton told The New York Times.
Emails released by House lawmakers showed that Summers maintained a cozy relationship with Epstein even after he became a convicted sex offender.
In one exchange, Summers asked Epstein for advice on ‘getting horizontal’ with a woman whom the Harvard figure once described as a mentee.
‘I dint [sic] want to be in a gift giving competition while being the friend without benefits,’ he wrote.
At one point, Epstein cracked that he was a ‘pretty good wing man.’
Pictured: Alan Dershowitz, Jeffrey Epstein, and Larry Summers dining together at Harvard in 2004
Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution in 2008.
However, the emails showed that Summers remained in touch with the convicted sex offender up until Epstein was arrested in July 2019.
One day before Epstein was taken into custody by federal authorities at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, Summers shared with him that he was in Cape Cod with family.
‘Bit of an Ibsen play,’ Summers messaged Epstein.
In response to the emails, Summers said in November that he was ‘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,’ he told the Boston Globe.
Summers called his decision to step down from Ivy League university ‘difficult,’ according to The Harvard Crimson.
He said he remained ‘grateful to the thousands of students and colleagues I have been privileged to teach and work with since coming to Harvard as a graduate student 50 years ago.’
This is a breaking news story.
