Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from Harvard University at the end of the academic year after scrutiny over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the university said on Wednesday.
Summers has been on leave from his teaching posts at Harvard since November, when the House Oversight Committee released hundreds of email exchanges between Epstein and the former Harvard president. The Harvard Crimson first reported the news of his resignation, confirmed by multiple outlets.
“You’re welcome,” Rep. Thomas Massie, who led the charge to release the files, wrote on X in response to the news of Summers’ resignation. “It’s not a hoax.”
Sign Up for NOTUS’ Free Daily Newsletter
Trending
In addition to serving as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, Summers was director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama.
Summers has denied wrongdoing and said his relationship with Epstein was “a major error of judgement.” He told the Harvard Crimson that the decision to leave was “difficult” but suggested he plans to remain in public life.
“Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues,” Summers told the Harvard Crimson.
Harvard University confirmed Summers’ resignation and academic leave to NOTUS.
“In connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein has accepted Professor Lawrence H. Summers’ resignation from his leadership position as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government,” Jason Newton, a spokesperson for the university, said in a statement.
In November, Summers said he would maintain his teaching position and step back from public commitments, but days after, as more of the exchanges came into scrutiny, Summers stepped down from several of his official positions, including at The New York Times, Bloomberg and OpenAI.
Multiple people have resigned from or lost their roles after the Epstein files revealed details of their ties to him, including former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler. Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
This article has been updated with a comment from Harvard University.
Author
