Larry Summers resigning Harvard post amid Epstein fallout
Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary and president emeritus and professor at Harvard University, attended the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 9, 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers, haunted by his past friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, announced on Wednesday that he will resign from his teaching position at Harvard University by the end of the current academic year.
Summers previously served as president of Harvard.
His resignation came as the university reviewed emails and other documents detailing Summers’ connection to Epstein; These were announced by the US State Department in recent months. Ministry of Justice and Congress.
“I have made the difficult decision to retire from my Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year,” Summers said in a statement obtained by CNBC. “I will always be grateful to the thousands of students and colleagues with whom I have had the privilege of teaching and working with since I arrived at Harvard as a graduate student 50 years ago.”
“As President Emeritus and a professor emeritus, free from official responsibility, I look forward to providing research, analysis and commentary on a range of global economic issues in due time,” he said.
Summers, who took a leave of absence from Harvard in November because of these emails, has not been charged with any crimes related to Epstein. He will not lecture or make new recommendations until his retirement takes effect.
“In connection with the University’s ongoing review of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents recently disclosed by the government, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein has accepted the resignation of Professor Lawrence H. Summers from his position as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government,” Harvard spokesman Jason Newton said in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday.
“Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty duties at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until then,” Newton wrote. he said.
When he took a leave of absence from Harvard and resigned from the board of artificial intelligence company OpenAI in November, Summers said, “I am deeply ashamed of my actions and aware of the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my ill-advised decision to continue to communicate with Mr. Epstein.”
His statement came after the Harvard student newspaper reported: RedIt details how Summers sought guidance from Epstein while pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman.
On Tuesday, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Richard Axel said he will resign as co-director of Columbia University. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute It stands out in light of his communications with Epstein.
A third Ivy League school, Yale University, announced the professor’s ban on February 11 David Gelernter He gave up teaching computer science courses until his connections to Epstein were reviewed, including mentioning a Yale student for a potential project.
Other high-profile individuals have recently suffered professional and legal harm because their connections to Epstein were detailed in the Justice Department’s document database.
Epstein killed himself in a New York City federal prison in 2019, weeks after his arrest on child sex trafficking charges.
