The influential economist served as president of Harvard university and Treasury secretary.
Former Harvard University president Larry Summers will step down from his roles at the Ivy League school, the latest fallout from his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I have made the difficult decision to retire from my Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year,” Summers said in a Feb. 25 statement.
“Free of formal responsibility, as president emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues.”
Summers, 71, an influential economist in both academia and policymaking, served as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama.
He first enrolled at Harvard as a graduate student, became a tenured economics professor, and later served as president from 2001 to 2006.
Summers came under investigation by the school after documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice revealed an extensive relationship between him and Epstein long after the latter pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Summers stepped down from teaching duties last year, although he remained a tenured professor.
A Harvard spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times that the university had accepted Summers’s resignation as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government “in connection with the ongoing review by the university of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government.”
Summers will retire from his other academic and faculty posts at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until then, the spokesperson said.
In November 2025, the Senate unanimously passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, compelling the DOJ to publicly release more than 20,000 pages of files related to Epstein, including a cache of emails between Epstein and Summers. The messages show the two men communicated over a span of years, up to Epstein’s arrest on sex-trafficking charges in July 2019.
Among the messages that became public were some exchanges that appeared to show Summers seeking romantic advice regarding a woman he described as someone who saw him as an “economics mentor.” Epstein responded with reassurances and suggestions for Summers’s pursuit of the woman, at one point describing himself in a November 2018 message as his “wing man.” Flight logs also show that Summers took at least four trips on Epstein’s private plane, including during his tenure as Harvard president.
By Bill Pan
