Washington, D.C. – November 22, 2025 – The shadow of Jeffrey Epstein's criminal empire continues to loom large over America's elite institutions, with fresh revelations about former Harvard University President and Clinton-era Treasury Secretary Larry Summers igniting a firestorm of public outrage and institutional reckoning. Newly analyzed flight logs and a trove of over 20,000 pages of emails from Epstein's estate have confirmed that Summers and his wife, Harvard literature professor Elisa F. New, spent part of their 2005 honeymoon on Epstein's infamous private island, Little Saint James – a site long derided by critics as "Pedo Island" due to its central role in the financier's sex trafficking operations.
The disclosures, which surfaced amid a broader congressional probe into Epstein's network, have prompted Summers to resign from high-profile roles at OpenAI, Harvard, and several think tanks, marking a dramatic fall from grace for one of Washington's most enduring economic influencers. While Summers has not been accused of any wrongdoing in Epstein's crimes, the revelations underscore the financier's insidious reach into academia, finance, and politics – a web that entangled presidents, Nobel laureates, and tech moguls alike.
Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, built a fortress of influence through philanthropy, private jets, and whispered confidences. His 72-acre Caribbean retreat, Little Saint James, became synonymous with depravity after survivors' accounts detailed underage girls being trafficked there for the pleasure of Epstein and his powerful guests. The island, purchased by Epstein in 1998 for $7.95 million, featured a sprawling mansion, guest villas, and a bizarre blue-striped temple-like structure that fueled endless speculation.
Flight logs, formally released by the U.S. Department of Justice in February 2025 and scrutinized anew by The Harvard Crimson, paint a vivid picture of Summers' entanglement. On December 21, 2005 – just 10 days after Summers and New exchanged vows in a Cambridge ceremony attended by academic luminaries – the couple boarded Epstein's Boeing 727, dubbed the "Lolita Express" for its alleged transport of underage victims. The jet, piloted by Epstein's longtime associate Larry Visoski, departed from Bedford, Massachusetts, and ferried them to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Accompanying them: Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend and convicted accomplice, who in 2021 was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for her role in recruiting and grooming minors for sexual abuse.
Summers' spokesperson, Steven Goldberg, acknowledged the trip in a statement to The Crimson, framing it as a fleeting detour in an otherwise idyllic getaway. "Mr. Summers and Ms. New spent their honeymoon in St. John and Jamaica in December 2005, which was long before Mr. Epstein was arrested for the first time," Goldberg said. "As part of that trip, they made a brief visit of less than a day to Mr. Epstein’s island." The visit, however, occurred against a chilling backdrop: Just six months earlier, in June 2005, Palm Beach police had launched an investigation into Epstein after a 14-year-old girl reported being raped at his Florida mansion. By October, authorities had executed a search warrant on the property, uncovering evidence of a sprawling abuse ring.
The honeymoon flight was no isolated incident. Publicly available logs indicate Summers flew on Epstein's jet at least three more times between 2002 and 2005 – including three during his tenure as Harvard's president from 2001 to 2006. These trips, often routed through Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Palm Beach or Epstein's Manhattan townhouse, coincided with Summers' rise as a global economic oracle. As Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001, Summers had championed deregulation policies that critics later blamed for exacerbating the 2008 financial crisis. His Harvard presidency ended amid controversy over comments suggesting innate gender differences in STEM aptitude, but Epstein's orbit offered a peculiar lifeline: The financier donated $6.5 million to Harvard's Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy in 2003, with Summers publicly praising the gift.
The true depth of their bond emerged last week, when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee – chaired by Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky – released over 20,000 pages of documents subpoenaed from Epstein's estate. Buried in the digital deluge were thousands of emails between Summers and Epstein spanning 2013 to 2019, right up to the eve of Epstein's July 6, 2019, arrest on federal charges. The correspondence, laced with casual banter about global markets, political scandals, and personal indiscretions, revealed an intimacy that belied Epstein's 2008 conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution – a plea deal that allowed him to serve just 13 months in a lenient "work-release" jail setup.
One particularly damning thread, dated June 2018, showed Summers seeking Epstein's counsel on pursuing a romantic entanglement with a female mentee – a Harvard colleague half his age. "She finds me invaluable and interesting," Summers wrote, adding that his "best shot" at intimacy lay in her dependency on his influence. Epstein, ever the enabler, replied with tactical advice: "Play the long game... keep her in a forced holding pattern." The exchange, which Summers later called a "misguided lapse in judgment," drew swift condemnation from women's rights advocates, who decried it as emblematic of power imbalances in elite academia.
Another email, from 2017, captured Epstein mocking President Donald Trump's character to Summers: "I have met some very bad people, none as bad as Trump... not one decent cell in his body." The missive highlighted the financier's dual role as gossip broker and manipulator, leveraging dirt on figures across the political spectrum. Democrats on the Oversight Committee, led by Ranking Member Robert Garcia of California, seized on such nuggets to press for fuller DOJ file releases, accusing the White House of a cover-up. Republicans, meanwhile, pivoted to Epstein's ties to Democrats like Summers and Bill Clinton, with President Trump himself directing Attorney General Pam Bondi on November 18 to probe "Epstein's involvement and relationship" with Summers, Clinton, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and JPMorgan Chase.
The backlash has been seismic. On Wednesday, November 19, Summers announced his resignation from OpenAI's board – a perch he assumed in late 2023 amid the AI firm's internal upheavals. "In line with my announcement to step away from my public commitments, I have also decided to resign from the board of OpenAI," he stated, expressing gratitude for the role while hinting at remorse. OpenAI's board, chaired by Bret Taylor, accepted the departure without fanfare. Hours later, Harvard placed Summers on indefinite leave from his tenured economics professorship and his leadership of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Kennedy School. A university spokesperson confirmed an internal review of Epstein-linked faculty ties, echoing a 2020 probe that cost Harvard $1.5 million in repayments after Epstein's donations surfaced.
The purge extended beyond Cambridge. The Yale Budget Lab, Center for American Progress, Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Spain's Santander Bank all severed ties with Summers by Thursday. Even media outlets distanced themselves: The New York Times declined to renew Summers' opinion contributor contract, signed in January, while Bloomberg TV ended his paid appearances. On X (formerly Twitter), the story trended under hashtags like #EpsteinFiles and #SummersScandal, with users from conservative firebrands to progressive activists decrying the "elite pedophile pipeline."
For victims' advocates, the episode is a grim vindication. Groups like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children hailed the Oversight Committee's work as a step toward accountability, though they lamented the decade-long delay in unsealing these records. "Epstein didn't kill himself, and neither did the secrets protecting his friends," said one survivor, Virginia Giuffre, in a statement echoing her posthumously published memoir. Giuffre, who died in 2024, had accused Epstein and Maxwell of trafficking her to prominent men, including Prince Andrew – a claim settled out of court.
As the DOJ investigation ramps up under Bondi's oversight, questions swirl: Will more flight manifests surface? What of Epstein's encrypted hard drives, seized in 2019 but only partially decrypted? And how deeply did Harvard – already scarred by Epstein's $9 million in gifts – enable this network? Summers, now 70 and holed up at his Brookline home, has remained silent since his resignations. In a rare prior comment, he told Axios, "I am deeply ashamed of my association with Epstein and take full responsibility."
This saga, unfolding against the 2025 holiday season, serves as a stark reminder of unchecked power's perils. Epstein's death may have silenced one predator, but the echoes of his enablers reverberate through boardrooms and ivory towers, demanding a fuller accounting. For now, Summers' honeymoon idyll stands as a metaphor for innocence lost – a brief paradise on an island built on exploitation.
