Former Harvard president Larry Summers steps aside from teaching as university probes Jeffrey Epstein documents

By Hanna Park, Taylor Romine, CNN

(CNN) — Former Harvard president Larry Summers will not finish out the semester in his instructor role, a Harvard spokesperson confirmed, as the university investigates emails from Jeffrey Epstein released last week.

“Mr. Summers has decided it’s in the best interest of the Center for him to go on leave from his role as Director as Harvard undertakes its review,” Summers spokesperson Steven Goldberg told the Associated Press. “His 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.” CNN has reached out to Summers for comment.

Summers has served as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School since 2011.

Summers had announced earlier Wednesday he resigned from the OpenAI board as he steps away from his public commitments following the release of the Epstein emails.

The Harvard investigation and Summers’ departure from the university and the OpenAI board come after a trove of emails was released last week that included years of personal correspondence between the two men.

“The University is conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents to evaluate what actions may be warranted,” a Harvard spokesperson told CNN, and said Summers had communicated his decision to the university.

The Harvard Crimson first reported the story of Summers’ early departure and the university’s investigation.

The Crimson reported the investigation will also examine the roles of other people associated with the university who are implicated in the tens of thousands of pages released by the House Oversight Committee — including Summers’ wife, a professor emerita of American literature at Harvard, and nearly a dozen current and former Harvard affiliates.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,” Summers said in a statement Monday.

Summers served as Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretary and Barack Obama’s director of the National Economic Council and was president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006.

He resigned as the school’s president amid multiple controversies, including his suggestion that men may perform better in the sciences because of genetic differences from women. He currently serves as the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard.

A previous investigation conducted by Harvard into its ties to Epstein revealed the multimillionaire, who died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial on charges accusing him of sexually abusing underage girls and running a sex trafficking ring, donated $9.1 million to the university between 1998 and 2008.

No donations were received after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida of one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution with a minor, according to a 2020 statement from then-Harvard President Larry Bacow.

The emails released last week include numerous exchanges between Summers and Epstein dating from at least 2013 to 2019, which include Summers making sexist comments and seeking Epstein’s romantic advice.

Congress on Tuesday approved a measure requiring the Justice Department to release all of its investigative files on Epstein within 30 days. The Senate unanimously agreed to pass the House-backed bill, meaning the measure will be sent to President Donald Trump, who has said he’d sign the legislation.

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CNN’s MJ Lee and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.