Ex-US treasury chief steps back from public duties after Epstein emails release

Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University who once served as US treasury secretary, has said he will step back from public commitments after the release of emails showing he maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein long after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008.

A statement sent to student newspaper The Harvard Crimson and other media on Monday said Mr Summers would step back to “rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me”.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognise the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr Epstein,” the statement said.

Mr Summers said he would continue to teach. His website says he teaches several economics courses at Harvard.

However, the Centre for American Progress, a progressive DC-based think tank, confirmed on Tuesday that Mr Summers was “ending his fellowship at CAP”. A spokesperson for the Budget Lab at Yale also said Mr Summers is no longer a member of the organisation’s advisory group.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.

Emails made public last week showed many in Epstein’s vast network of wealthy and influential friends stayed in touch long after his 2008 guilty plea.

A 2019 email to Epstein showed Mr Summers discussing interactions he had with a woman, writing that “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy’. I said awfully coy u are.”

Epstein, who often wrote with spelling and grammatical errors, replied, “you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring. , no whining showed strentgh”.

When asked about the emails last week, Mr Summers issued a statement saying he has “great regrets in my life” and that his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgment”.

Mr Summers served as treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He was Harvard’s president for five years from 2001 to 2006. He is currently a professor and is a director of the school’s Mossavar-Rahmani Centre for Business and Government.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, from Massachusetts, told CNN she believes Harvard should severe ties with Mr Summers, saying he “cannot be trusted” with students.

“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,” Ms Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor, told CNN.

The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday on legislation to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on Epstein, the culmination of a monthslong effort that has overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.

When a small bipartisan group of House members introduced a petition in July to manoeuvre around House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which Bills see the House floor, it appeared a longshot effort, especially as Mr Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax”.

But both Mr Trump and Mr Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote.

Now the president has bowed to the growing momentum behind the Bill and even said Republicans should vote for it. His blessing all but ensures that the House will pass the Bill with an overwhelming margin, putting further pressure on the Senate to take it up.

Mr Trump on Monday said he would sign the Bill if it passes both chambers of Congress, adding: “Let the Senate look at it.”