In one of their seemingly numerous back-and-forth email exchanges, former Treasury Secretary and former president of Harvard University Lawrence Summers shared what he believed to be an important insight with Jeffrey Epstein.
“I’m trying to figure out why American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard, but hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank,” Summers wrote. “DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”
Summers shared his insight — which referenced the case of Michelle Jones — with Epstein, the now-deceased pedophile billionaire, in October of 2017, nearly 10 years after Epstein got a sweetheart plea deal in an investigation into his sexual abuse of minor girls. Summers declined to comment regarding the email on the record. He has previously expressed regret for his association with Epstein.
The email from Summers was one of thousands released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. The document dump included explosive statements by Epstein that President Donald Trump “knew about the girls” and spent “hours at my house with” an unnamed victim. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the emails “a manufactured hoax by the Democrat [sic] Party.” They also reveal several prominent individuals who remained in Epstein’s good graces, offering him support, advice or, in Summers’ case, sharing jokes about the #MeToo movement with a man who had served jail time for having sex with girls too young to consent.
Michael Wolff, the journalist and author of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” has previously acknowledged being in constant contact with Epstein. Epstein served as a significant source for Wolff about Trump and his first term for “Fire and Fury” and he published multiple podcast episodes about his Epstein conversations that included audio of their talks.
What Wolff left out was that he was also giving advice to Epstein on how to beat back allegations against him. In 2016, Wolff shared his advice on how to counter a book about Epstein written by thriller author James Patterson and journalists John Connolly and Tim Malloy. He counseled Epstein to shift attention away from himself by using the book as an opportunity to make the story about Trump, essentially throwing him under the bus.
“[Y]ou do need an immediate counter narrative to the book,” Wolff wrote. “I believe Trump offers an ideal opportunity. It’s a chance to make the story about something other than you, while, at the same time, letting you frame your own story.”
Wolff also suggested smearing Connolly in a letter from a lawyer as having “an obsession with Epstein, such that, his longtime employer, Vanity Fair, has refused to allow him to write about Epstein for the magazine.”
Epstein did not take Wolff’s advice and instead kept his head down. Wolff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Wolff wasn’t the only journalist in Epstein’s inbox offering suggestions. New York Times financial reporter Landon Thomas, Jr., who counted Epstein as a source since he wrote a now-famous 2002 New York Magazine profile of him — and who later reported on Epstein’s 2008 sentence for sex crimes — was also in constant contact, including providing information that appears to go beyond a reporter-source relationship.
In 2017, prior to the publication of the Patterson book, Thomas emailed Epstein to keep him informed about what Patterson’s coauthors were asking about. “Got another call from Connelly..,” a reference to Patterson’s coauthor, the email’s subject line read.
“He is digging around again ― not clear if its another book/or expanded paperback version,” Thomas wrote. “Was asking me all sorts of questions about why you hired Ken Starr. I told him I had no idea ― I think he is doing some Trump-related digging too. Anyway, for what its worth…”
This wasn’t the first time Thomas kept Epstein abreast of Connolly’s reporting. “Keep getting calls from that guy doing a book on you ― John Connolly. He seems very interested in your relationship with the news media. I told him you were a hell of a guy:)” he wrote in 2016.
Thomas also appeared to try to get Epstein to go public with information he was implied to have about Trump.
“I am kind of shocked that our reporters did not contact you re the Trump/women story,” Thomas said in a May 16, 2016, email. “Seems to me he got off rather lightly. How are you doing?”
“Me too,” Epstein replied.
“is the other stuff ever going to come out?” Thomas asked.
In 2015, Thomas reached out to Epstein to bemoan how he had become a source for other reporters looking to learn more about Epstein.
“would you like photso[sic] of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen,” Epstein responded.
The photos, according to Epstein’s response, included Lauren Petrella, a model who later accused Trump of unwanted sexual advances.
Thomas was forced to resign from the New York Times in 2019 after he revealed to editors that he had solicited Epstein for a $30,000 donation to a Harlem cultural center. Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Others who reached out to Epstein included New Age guru Deepak Chopra, Woody Allen’s wife Soon-Yi Previn, magician David Blaine, right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, conservative lawyer Ken Starr, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and linguist and left-wing activist Noam Chomsky. Most of these conversations included sharing gossip, discussing political developments and responding to links to news stories. Previn, Thiel and Chomsky did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A letter from Blaine to Citizenship and Immigration Services recommending the approval of a non-immigrant work visa for an unnamed “amazing fashion model” appears in Epstein’s mailbox. A spokesperson for Blaine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chopra responded positively to an email from Epstein sharing an article about a case alleging that he and Trump sexually abused a 13-year-old girl had been dropped. “Good See you this Sat 230 PM ?” Chopra replied.
“I’m always cognizant of Dr. and patient privilege,” Chopra said in a statement. “However, in this case, I hope that all of the truth comes out after ongoing and proper investigations. I’m happy to share whatever I know with authorized officials. Otherwise there are only endless speculations without knowing the context.”
“Hi Jeff The Trump momentum, I believe was stopped,” Barak wrote days before the 2016 election. “Hillary might be on her way to Win. But with much lower margin, and probably still GOP controlled Senate.”
Barak distanced himself from Epstein in 2019, telling the New York Times, “He was hardly reviled by American society, so how was I to know?” He added, “I never took part in any party or event with women or anything like that.”
Summers also routinely asked Epstein for his thoughts about Trump and who he would appoint after winning in 2016.
“recall ive told you „ i have met some very bad people „ none as bad as trump,” Epstein wrote back. “not one decent cell in his body.”