Photo: Getty Images
Larry Summers, who had previously served as treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton, will take a step back from his teaching duties at Harvard after emails released by the House Oversight Committee last week revealed a close relationship with late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Harvard officials will investigate Summers' ties to Epstein, his spokesperson confirmed in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday (November 19) night.
Summers, who had previously served as Harvard's president, had already resigned from his role on the OpenAI board and announced that he would be stepping back from public commitments after his relationship with Epstein was revealed in the emails.
“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 in a statement obtained by CNN on Wednesday (November 19). “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 of directors also issued a statement to CNN confirming his departure.
“Larry has decided to resign from the OpenAI Board of Directors, and we respect his decision,” the statement reads. “We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board.”
Summers had previously served as Clinton's treasury secretary, as well as former President Barack Obama's National Economic Council director and Harvard University president, having resigned from that role in 2006 amid pressure from multiple controversies. The economist joined OpenAI's board in 2023 shortly after the company welcomed back CEO Sam Altman, who was ousted by the previous board days prior.
More than 20,000 emails from Epstein's estate were released by the House Committee, which included conversations between Summers and the former financier, with the most recent coming one day prior to Epstein's arrest in 2019.
“While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me,” Summers said in his statement.
An email exchange with Epstein in March 2019 included discussions about a woman Summers was interested in. Epstein was jailed awaiting trial on federal charges when he was reported to have died by suicide in 2019.
Summers has not been accused of any crimes in relation to his association with Epstein. President Donald Trump, who was also mentioned numerous times in emails sent by the late convicted pedophile, signed a bill to compel the U.S. Justice Department to release files related to Epstein on Wednesday.
Trump's lengthy post attempted to tie Epstein to the Democrats, days after publicly urging Republicans to vote in favor of the release of the full Justice Department files related to Epstein, changing his previous stance on the files being released. The president had called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein's ties to prominent Democratic officials and banks like JP Morgan days after his own name was mentioned in emails sent by the late convicted pedophile.
"We have released over 33,000 Epstein documents to the Hill, and we will continue to follow the law and to have maximum transparency. Also, we will always encourage all victims to come forward," Bondi said at a news conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and others on an unrelated issue via ABC News.
Several emails sent by Epstein were released by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week, which included the late pedophile referring to Trump as the "dog that hasn't barked" and claiming he "spent hours at my house" to longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.