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Former Harvard University President Larry Summers says he will abandon his public commitment after his emails with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein were made public.
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they caused. I take full responsibility for my poor decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,” Summers said in a statement obtained by BBC America partner CBS News on Monday.
In emails released by Congress last week, former Treasury Secretary Summers communicated with Epstein until the day before Epstein was arrested in 2019 for sex trafficking of minors.
On Tuesday, House lawmakers are expected to vote to release all documents related to Epstein.
Previously, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationships” with former President Bill Clinton (also a friend of Epstein) and several other prominent Democrats.
The Justice Department’s decision came at the urging of Trump, who also called for investigations into Summers, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and JPMorgan and Chase Bank.
“Epstein is a Democrat and he is a Democratic problem, not a Republican problem!” he wrote on social media.
“They all know him, don’t waste your time on Trump. I have a country to run!”
Clinton has vehemently denied he had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Summers served as Treasury secretary under Clinton and director of the National Economic Council under former President Barack Obama. He served as President of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006 and is currently a professor at the school.
Summers said in a statement Monday night that he hopes to “rebuild trust and repair relationships with those closest to him.”
“While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will waive my public commitment as part of my broader efforts,” he said.
Summers, who previously served as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank, announced on its website on Monday that he was no longer affiliated with the center.
Emails released by the House Oversight Committee last week showed that Summers and Epstein frequently met for dinner and that Epstein often sought to connect Summers to prominent figures around the world. At one point in July 2018, Epstein proposed a meeting with “the President of the United Nations (sic), the person you are interested in.”
Shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, Summers told Epstein in another email to “not put any effort into anything Trump-related.”
Summers said he’d “better off being a million miles away” because of Trump’s “way of handling conflicts of interest,” Putin’s “approach” and his “blind reaction” to the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
A representative for Summers previously told US media that he “deeply regrets being associated with Epstein following his 2008 conviction for soliciting underage prostitutes.”
The emails include a number of high-profile figures. A Wall Street Journal review found that of 2,324 emails, more than 1,600 mentioned Trump.
Trump was a friend of Epstein’s for many years, but the president said they had a falling out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing with Epstein. While he was discussed in some messages posted last week, he did not send or receive them.
