Feb 25, 2026, 9:13 p.mFeb 25, 2026, 9:13 p.m
After his connections to sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein became known, former Harvard President Larry Summers is withdrawing from teaching at the elite university. “I have made the difficult decision to resign my professorship at Harvard University at the end of this academic year,” said the former US Treasury Secretary in a statement that was available to the German Press Agency.
Larry Summers is giving up his Harvard professorship.Image: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire
A Harvard spokesman confirmed to the dpa that the withdrawal was related to the ongoing internal review of documents relating to Epstein. The university said Summers would neither teach nor supervise new students until his official retirement.
Published emails and text messages revealed close personal exchanges between Summers and Epstein, who died in 2019. In it, Summers also reportedly made derogatory comments about women. The well-known US economist had previously largely withdrawn from public life.
Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton
Summers was Treasury Secretary under then US President Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001 and later an advisor to then President Barack Obama. At the beginning of the 2000s he was Harvard president. In addition to a professorship at the university, the ex-minister recently held other positions, including on the board of ChatGPT operator OpenAI and as a columnist for Bloomberg News.
He looks forward to “engaging in research, analysis and commentary on a range of global economic issues in the future,” says Summer’s statement, which makes no mention of the Epstein scandal.
The influential multimillionaire Epstein had run an abuse ring for years, to which numerous young women and minors fell victim. He also committed suicide against his victims. He died in his prison cell in 2019 at the age of 66; According to the autopsy report, he committed suicide. (hkl/sda/dpa)