Larry Summers, former president of Harvard University and former US Treasury Secretary, will resign from his teaching position at the end of the academic year. A Harvard spokesperson confirmed the decision is connected to the university’s ongoing review of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents recently released by the government. Summers has also stepped down from his role as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School, a position he had held since 2011.
Summers had already announced in November 2025 that he would pause teaching while the university conducted its investigation. In a statement, he described the decision to leave as difficult but said he looks forward to continuing work on global economic issues as President Emeritus and a retired professor.
The resignation follows renewed scrutiny after emails released by the US House Oversight Committee in 2025 raised fresh questions about the nature of his relationship with Epstein. The messages showed a friendship that continued well into 2019, ending shortly before Epstein was arrested in July of that year on federal sex-trafficking charges. The emails showed the two discussing politics, philanthropy and personal matters, with Epstein at one point referring to himself as Summers’s “wingman” in a 2018 message.
Epstein donated more than $9 million to Harvard and affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, a period that overlapped with Summers’s tenure as university president. Epstein was also appointed a visiting fellow at Harvard during that time, though the university later acknowledged he lacked the academic qualifications typically required for the role. Harvard stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges.
