Larry's Summer's emails to Epstein: 'Do not repeat this insight' line goes viral as details on exchanges emerge

The former Harvard president’s internal message to the now-infamous financier has reignited scrutiny of their ties

An email from Lawrence Summers, former Harvard President, to financier Jeffrey Epstein has been brought to light by the House Oversight Committee Democrats on Wednesday. The email bears the phrase, “DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT,” which seems like an email talking about Donald Trump, women and wars.

Lawrence Summers' email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein(For the New York Times )

The email has brought the relationship between Summers and Epstein into speculation again. The message appears in previously redacted communications released as part of ongoing investigations into Epstein’s network.

The Harvard-Crimson origin article had highlighted meetings between Summers and Epstein, though this particular line suggests a more clandestine dimension.

Summers and his network

Summers served as President of Harvard University (2001-2006) and U.S. Treasury Secretary (1999-2001). During his Harvard presidency, Epstein provided millions in donations and was granted unusual access to campus, including an office, despite no formal academic appointment.

The Nation's 2023 report shows that Summers met Epstein multiple times between 2013 and 2016 for dinners and fund-raising discussions, despite Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor. In April 2014, Summers emailed Epstein: “My life will be better if I raise $1m for Lisa,” referring to his wife’s poetry-project nonprofit.

The correspondence, which spans at least seven years and combines business negotiations with open, occasionally confessional conversations, provides the fullest view yet of how Epstein's influence persisted within Harvard's inner circle even after the university claimed to have severed relations.

The email cache reveals regular correspondence

The cache, released by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, revealed that the two addressed women, politics, and Harvard-related projects on a regular basis. As late as March 2019, just months before Epstein's arrest and demise, they seem to have kept up a close relationship.

Summers, however, drew a line in matters of the Trump administration in an email thread dating to 2016, according to The Crimson. “Spend zero effort on anything about me w trump,” he wrote. “Seeing his approach to conflict of interest, his Putin proximity, and his mindless response on Castro death I’m best off a million miles away.”

Summers offered conjecture, and Epstein gave succinct, well-known responses as the two exchanged remarks regarding global leaders and campaign figures.

Epstein set Summers up in a meeting with Karim Wade, a former Senegalese minister then living in exile in Qatar, in the same 2016 email thread.

Summers was confused and wrote to Epstein, “Who is the guy you have set me up with?” Summers appeared not very keen on meeting Wade and advised Epstein to maintain a certain distance from certain relationships “at least in public”, advice he himself failed to oblige.

He told The Crimson, “I have great regrets in my life. As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgment.”