![\"US-Epstein-Summers\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/c342674bfbb54b5489381300c207999b.jpg\")
Former Harvard University president Larry Summers waves during Harvard commencement exercises in 2018 (Michael Dwyer\/AP)<\/p>\nMr Summers had been retreating from his public commitments amid the fallout of the email revelation, but he had maintained that he would continue teaching economics classes at Harvard.<\/p>\n
Yet by Wednesday evening, Mr Summers had not only retreated from his teaching classes but also as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Centre for Business and Government with the Kennedy Harvard School.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Summers has decided it\u2019s in the best interest of the Centre for him to go on leave from his role as Director as Harvard undertakes its review. 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,\u201d Mr Summers\u2019 spokesperson Steven Goldberg said.<\/p>\n
Former Harvard University president Larry Summers waves during Harvard commencement exercises in 2018 (Michael Dwyer\/AP)<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear if Mr Summers would return to teaching in the upcoming semester. Mr Summers\u2019 decision to go on leave was first reported by The Harvard Crimson.<\/p>\n
Harvard did not mention Mr Summers by name in its decision to restart an investigation, but the move follows the release of emails showing that he was friendly with Epstein long after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008.<\/p>\n
By Wednesday, the once highly regarded economics expert had been facing increased scrutiny over choosing to stay in the teaching role.<\/p>\n
Some students even filmed his appearance in shock as he appeared before a class of undergraduates on Tuesday, while stressing he thought it was important to continue teaching.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Summers severed ties with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.<\/p>\n
The emails include messages in which Mr Summers appeared to be getting advice from Epstein about pursuing a romantic relationship with someone who viewed him as an \u201ceconomic mentor\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cim a pretty good wing man , no?\u201d Epstein wrote on November 30, 2018.<\/p>\n
The next day, Mr Summers told Epstein he had texted the woman, telling her he \u201chad something brief to say to her\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAm I thanking her or being sorry re my being married. I think the former,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Mr Summers\u2019 wife, Elisa New, also emailed Epstein multiple times, including a 2015 message in which she thanked him for arranging financial support for a poetry project she directs.<\/p>\n
The gift he arranged \u201cchanged everything for me\u201d, she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really means a lot to me, all financial help aside, Jeffrey, that you are rooting for me and thinking about me,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
Ms New, an English professor emerita at Harvard, did not respond to an email seeking comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
An earlier review completed in 2020 found that Epstein visited Harvard\u2019s campus more than 40 times after his 2008 sex-crimes conviction and was given his own office and unfettered access to a research centre he helped establish.<\/p>\n
The professor who provided the office was later barred from starting new research or advising students for at least two years.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Mr Summers appeared before his class at Harvard, where he teaches The Political Economy of Globalisation to undergraduates with Robert Lawrence, a professor with the Harvard Kennedy School.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of you will have seen my statement of regret expressing my shame with respect to what I did in communication with Mr Epstein and that I\u2019ve said that I\u2019m going to step back from public activities for a while. But I think it\u2019s very important to fulfill my teaching obligations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Summers\u2019 remarks were captured on video by several students, but no one appeared to publicly respond to his comments.<\/p>\n
Mr Summers served as treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 under president Bill Clinton. He was Harvard\u2019s president for five years from 2001 to 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Summers had been retreating from his public commitments amid the fallout of the email revelation, but he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-581758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115579994031261082","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}