While the university looks into Epstein's emails former Harvard president Larry Summers resigns from his position
While the university looks into Epstein's emails, former Harvard president Larry Summers resigns from his position.
A spokeswoman verified that Harvard University professor Larry Summers is on leave as the institution looks into his and others' connections to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The former US Treasury Secretary and former Harvard president will retire from his position as director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Mossavar-Rahmani Centre for Business and Government.
Summers thinks "it's in the best interest of the Centre," a representative told CBS News, the BBC's US partner.
Summers communicated with Epstein up until the day before the financier's 2019 arrest for alleged child sex trafficking, according to recently made public emails.
The university stated it was "conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents" in a statement to The Harvard Crimson.
Summers has been approached by the BBC over Harvard's recent review.
Summers spoke to students in a Harvard seminar he had been teaching about his correspondence with Epstein on Tuesday.
Summers informed his pupils, "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," as seen on camera by a student.
"I believe that fulfilling my teaching responsibilities is crucial. Thus, we will proceed and discuss the subject matter in class with your consent."
However, Summers spokesperson Steven Goldberg stated that "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" in a statement given to CBS on Wednesday night.
After more than 20,000 pages of records from the so-called Epstein files were made public by Congress last week, including numerous emails exchanged between Epstein and Summers, the public consequences for Summers started.
Time stamps from the emails showed the two communicated up until the day before Epstein's arrest - a decade after he pleaded guilty for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
A married father of six, Summers messaged Epstein in November 2018 seemingly asking for romantic advice related to his interest in someone he said viewed him as an "economics mentor".
"Think for now I'm going nowhere with her except economics mentor," Summers wrote in one exchange where Epstein referred to himself as Summers' "wing man".
"Am I expressing gratitude to her or apologising for being married? In another email, he said, "I believe the former."
The emails also revealed that Summers and Epstein had regular dinners together, with Epstein routinely attempting to put Summers in touch with influential people around the world.
There is no publicly accessible proof that Summers was connected to any of Epstein's misdeeds, and no Epstein victim has accused him of wrongdoing.
OpenAI, an artificial intelligence business, said it respects Summers' choice to step down after he announced earlier on Wednesday that he was departing the board.
"We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board," stated OpenAI.
In 2023, after an unsuccessful attempt to remove OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, he joined the board of the company that creates ChatGPT.
In a statement regarding the relocation, Summers told the BBC that he was "grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress."
Summers said he accepted "full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein" after the emails were made public.
"To rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me" was his stated goal.
Summers had important positions under two Democratic presidents, including director of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama and treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. He is still a professor at Harvard and served as its leader from 2001 to 2006.
Summers is no longer associated with the Centre for American Progress, a liberal think group in Washington where he served as a senior fellow.
On Tuesday, a bill requiring the US Justice Department to make its Epstein files public was approved by both chambers of Congress, paving the way for the potential release of tens of thousands more papers.
Following criticism from his supporters, President Donald Trump changed his stance on the matter and signed the law on Wednesday.
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