Larry Summers, the economist and former Treasury secretary who served on OpenAI’s board, has resigned following the release of email documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate showing continued contact between the two men years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction.
The Resignation
Summers announced his decision to step down from the OpenAI board as part of a broader withdrawal from public commitments, according to statements provided to Axios. “In line with my announcement to step away from my public commitments, I have also decided to resign from the board of OpenAI,” Summers said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company and look forward to following their progress.”
OpenAI’s board responded with its own statement: “Larry has decided to resign from the OpenAI Board of Directors, and we respect his decision. We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board.”
Despite stepping away from public roles, Summers plans to continue teaching at Harvard, where he currently serves as Professor of Economics.
What the Emails Revealed
The House Oversight Committee released email documents from Epstein’s estate last week that showed correspondence between Summers and Epstein continuing well after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
In emails from 2018 and 2019, Summers reached out to Epstein seeking advice on pursuing a relationship outside of his marriage with a woman he described as a “mentee.” In the exchanges, Epstein referred to himself as Summers’ “wing man.” The emails also included numerous sexist comments from Summers.
The timeline is particularly notable: Summers’ final correspondence with Epstein in the released documents occurred on July 5, 2019—just one day before Epstein was arrested and federally charged for the sex trafficking of minors.
The Long-Standing Connection
Summers’ ties to Epstein have been publicly known for years. During Summers’ tenure as President of Harvard from 2001 to 2006, Epstein donated tens of millions of dollars to the university and was given his own personal office on campus.
Flight records released during the 2021 trial of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell showed that Summers had previously flown on Epstein’s private plane, according to the Harvard Crimson.
However, the newly released emails demonstrated that the relationship extended far longer than previously documented—continuing an entire decade after Epstein’s initial conviction and right up until his final arrest.
The Broader Context
The email dump from Epstein’s estate has already created ripples across multiple institutions. Summers had announced he would be stepping away from all public commitments in light of the document release before specifically resigning from the OpenAI board.
The documents are separate from the broader “Epstein files” that Congress has been considering releasing, which could contain additional revelations about Epstein’s connections to powerful figures in business, politics, and academia.
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