New York, Nov 18 As Congress readies to vote on Tuesday on the release of all the files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, once a high-flying billionaire social figure, preliminary leaks have hit Larry Summers, a former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University head.
After disclosures in emails between them that Summers sought advice from Epstein about seducing a woman, Summers said that he was “deeply ashamed” and would withdraw from public engagements.
Democrat Representative Ro Khanna, who spearheaded the effort for the legislation to release the documents, told a TV interviewer that he wanted the elite involved to be exposed.
As an asset manager, Epstein had billionaire clients, and his influence and networking built a web of business, political and social figures.
After months of opposing the release of all the Epstein documents to the government, President Donald Trump retreated on Sunday and said his party’s members of the House of Representatives can vote for legislation to open the trove of files.
He backtracked because it appeared that a large number of Republicans would defy him and vote for it, which could be interpreted as the first sign that his control was slipping.
“It’s a Democrats’ problem. Democrats were Epstein’s friends, all of them”, Trump asserted.
Summers is a Democrat who was in former President Barack Obama’s cabinet.
Like Summers, former President Bill Clinton was a guest of Epstein and flew on his private planes, which Trump mentioned and asked the Justice Department to investigate them and financial institutions with links to the billionaire.
Democrats pushed for the files’ release, and some Republicans joined them because of the anti-elite sentiments of their base.
Trump said that he had broken off all relations with Epstein decades ago.
The leaks from Democrats showed that Trump had greeted Epstein on his birthday, and in emails, Epstein claimed Trump knew of the trafficking, which the president has denied.
There were no indications that Trump was involved with the girls victimised by Epstein and his friends, and in an email, Epstein said that Trump hadn't had a "massage".
Summers was the first major American figure to be felled by disclosures of Epstein connections, which already brought down former British Prince Andrew.
Now known plainly by his surname Mountbatten-Windsor after being stripped of his royal title, he was accused of having sex with minors as a guest of Epstein.
Epstein was convicted in Florida of procuring children for sex and was facing a federal trial on charges of trafficking minors for sex when he died in jail. Authorities said he committed suicide.
The disclosures so far do not show that Summers was involved in the sex crimes, but only in ribald email conversations about a woman who sought his mentoring.
Harvard Crimson identified the woman as an academic at the London School of Economics and the daughter of a former high-ranking Chinese official.
Summers is on the Harvard faculty, and he said he would continue to teach there.
He is on the board of several companies, including Op-AI, and a White House official told Politico that institutions he is associated with should drop him.
That was echoed by Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren.
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sl/dan
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