Larry Summers will take a leave of absence from teaching at Harvard University while the school investigates his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The school announced its investigation into their former president Tuesday, saying it was conducting “a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents to evaluate what actions may be warranted.”
Summers will also go on leave as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.
“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,” Summers spokesman Steven Goldberg told NBC News in a statement.
Summers has also left his positions on the board of directors at OpenAI, the board of the Center for Global Development, as a fellow with the Center for American Progress, and a role with the Budget Lab at Yale. The New York Times and Bloomberg News dropped him from their opinion section and as a paid contributor, respectively.
Summers’s conversations with Epstein were revealed as part of a trove of documents released from the convicted sex offender’s estate to the House Oversight Committee. In one email conversation, the former treasury secretary shared his thoughts about sexual harassment allegations.
“I’m trying to figure why American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,” Summers wrote. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”
He also messaged Epstein about someone who viewed him as an “economics mentor.”
“Think for now I’m going nowhere with her except economics mentor,” Summers wrote in the exchange. Epstein had referred to himself as his “wing man.”
“Am I thanking her or being sorry re my being married. I think the former,” Summers added in another email.
The former Harvard president suggested to students on Tuesday that he would continue teaching.
“Some 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’ve said that I’m going to step back from public activity,” Summers told his students, according to a video.
“I think it’s very important to fulfill my teaching obligations. So with your permission, we’re going to go forward and talk about the material in the class,” he added.
FORMER HARVARD PRESIDENT LARRY SUMMERS UNDER INVESTIGATION BY UNIVERSITY OVER EPSTEIN TIES
Congress approved the release of the Epstein files this week, and President Donald Trump signed the bill releasing the files Wednesday.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department will now have 30 days to release the files.
