Larry Summers announced he will leave his Harvard teaching roles amid renewed scrutiny of his connections to Jeffrey Epstein and his deep ties to Democratic politics.
Harvard said the former Treasury secretary will resign from his teaching posts at the end of the academic year.
Harvard also said Summers will give up his University Professorship, the school’s highest faculty distinction.
Summers, who served as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and is a major Democratic donor, called the decision “difficult,” according to the Harvard Crimson.
He did not point to a specific reason for stepping down.
The departure comes after Justice Department files released by House lawmakers renewed attention on Summers’ contacts with Epstein.
Those documents included emails that indicated Summers remained in contact with Epstein up to Epstein’s 2019 arrest, years after Epstein’s conviction for soliciting minors.
The exchanges referenced politics and women.
Flight logs previously disclosed show Summers and his wife, Lisa New, visited Epstein’s Little Saint James island in December 2005, shortly after their wedding.
Summers was Harvard president at the time.
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Palm Beach police had begun investigating Epstein months earlier.
A Summers spokesperson previously said that 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.
The spokesperson said they made a brief visit of less than a day to Epstein’s island as part of that trip.
Harvard said the resignation was “in connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government,” spokesman Jason Newton told The New York Times.
Summers has been on leave since November and will remain on leave until his resignation takes effect.
During that period he will not teach classes or accept new advisees.
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One of the emails highlighted by lawmakers showed Summers asking Epstein for advice on “getting horizontal” with a woman Summers had elsewhere described as a mentee.
Summers wrote, “I dint [sic] want to be in a gift giving competition while being the friend without benefits.”
In another exchange, Epstein quipped that he was a “pretty good wing man.”
