Larry Summers to resign from Harvard post due to Epstein connection
Former Treasury Secretary and Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from teaching at the end of the academic year, a Harvard spokesperson told USA TODAY.
Ex-Treasury Secretary and former Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from teaching at the end of the academic year, a Harvard spokesperson told USA TODAY.
The Feb. 25 announcement comes more than three months after the Justice Department revealed the longtime economist’s ties with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“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,” said Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.
Summers is also resigning from his academic and faculty appointments and will remain on leave until the end of the school year, Newton added.
He will not teach or take on new advisees, the university said.
In a Feb. 25 statement to The Harvard Crimson student newspaper, Summers wrote that the decision to leave was “difficult.”
Summers said he remained “grateful to the thousands of students and colleagues I have been privileged to teach and work with since coming to Harvard as a graduate student 50 years ago.”
“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 added.
In November, Summers told the Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, that he was withdrawing from his public duties to mend personal bonds after the House Oversight Committee released documents showing Summers’ connection to the disgraced financier.
The documents included emails indicating Summers, who was Harvard’s president from 2001 to 2006, sought relationship advice in 2019 from Epstein.
Epstein, whose 2019 death while in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges was ruled a suicide, had allegedly sexually abused potentially hundreds of women and girls and trafficked them to other wealthy men.
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” Summers told the Crimson in a statement on Nov. 18 2025. “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”
Contributing: Marc Ramirez
