Ex-U.S. Treasury chief Summers quits Harvard over Epstein ties

Former U.S. Treasury secretary Larry Summers resigned from his teaching post at Harvard University over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Ivy League institution said on Wednesday.

Summers, who ran the U.S. Treasury under former president Bill Clinton, was revealed in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice to have had extensive exchanges with the now deceased financier.

Clinton will testify before a congressional committee on Epstein on Friday while his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, will appear Thursday.

"Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein has accepted Professor Lawrence H. Summers' resignation from his leadership position as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government," the university said in a statement, noting the move was linked to the Epstein case.

"Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until that time."

In a previous video clip that went viral, Summers, who taught government at the prestigious university's Kennedy School, expressed regret to his students over his ties to Epstein.

'Statement of regret' 

"You will have seen my statement of regret expressing my shame with respect to what I did in communication with Mr Epstein," he said.

In November 2025, Summers said he was "stepping back" from public commitments after Congress released emails showing close communication between him and Epstein.

"I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr Epstein," Summers said at the time in a statement to U.S. media.

Summers also previously resigned from the board of the OpenAI foundation over the disclosures.

The mere mention of someone's name in the Epstein files does not, in itself, imply any wrongdoing by that person. However, the documents made public show at the very least connections between Epstein or his circle and certain public figures who have often downplayed -- or even denied -- the existence of such ties.

Epstein cultivated a global network of powerful politicians, business executives, academics and celebrities -- many of whom have been tainted by their association with him.

He had made $9.1 million in donations to Harvard University between 1998 and 2008, the institution said.

A number of prominent Americans -- from the Clintons to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates -- have had their reputations damaged by their friendships with Epstein, but no one other than Epstein's ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell has faced legal consequences in the United States.