Who Is Larry Summers? The Former Harvard President the Epstein Files Just Brought Down
For fifty years, Lawrence H. Summers was one of the most powerful figures in American public life. He advised presidents, ran Harvard, shaped the global economy in moments of crisis, and earned a reputation as one of the sharpest economic minds of his generation. On February 25, 2026, he resigned from Harvard in connection with his emails to Jeffrey Epstein. He previously lost his seat on OpenAI's board and The American Economic Association issued him a lifetime ban.
Who Is Larry Summers?
Summers served as the 71st Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and as Director of the National Economic Council under President Obama. He was President of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006 and Chief Economist of the World Bank. In academic circles, his credentials are equally formidable: he became one of the youngest tenured faculty members in Harvard's recent history at just 28, won the John Bates Clark Medal in 1993 as the most outstanding American economist under 40, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.
In short, he was the kind of person other powerful people called when they needed advice. The kind of person whose name on a board or a masthead carried real weight. In November 2023, that included OpenAI — the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT — which appointed him to its board of directors following a period of internal turmoil.
What the Epstein Emails Revealed
In 2025, the House Oversight Committee released a batch of documents that reignited scrutiny of Summers' relationship with Jeffrey Epstein — the financier who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors. The emails showed a friendship that lasted well into 2019, ending only shortly before Epstein's arrest in July of that year. Records also showed that Summers flew on Epstein's private aircraft at least four times.
Among the messages was one from 2018 in which Epstein referred to himself as Summers' "wingman" — a reference to emails in which Summers appeared to ask Epstein for advice on pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee.
@nalgene_queen And in the emails released he was asking Epstein for advice on a young woman he was coercing…… just gross.
♬ original sound - LJD????????????
The revelation was damaging enough that Summers moved quickly to get ahead of it. In a statement to the Harvard Crimson in November 2025, he didn't equivocate. "I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused," he said. "I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein."
Larry Summers' Resignation
Within weeks of the November revelations, Summers resigned from OpenAI's board. The American Economic Association — the preeminent professional body for economists in the United States — issued him a lifetime ban. Harvard launched a formal review, and Summers stepped back from his public duties while it proceeded.
Tuesday's announcement made his departure from Harvard permanent. A spokesperson confirmed that Summers will resign from his faculty and academic appointments at the end of the current academic year, and has also stepped down from his role as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School — a position he had held since 2011. Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein accepted the resignation.
In a statement, Summers called the decision "difficult" but tried to look forward. "I will always be grateful to the thousands of students and colleagues I have been privileged to teach and work with since coming to Harvard as a graduate student 50 years ago," he said. "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."