Larry Summers to Step Back from Teaching and Harvard Kennedy School Post as University Investigates Ties to Epstein

By Aidan Ryan 

Globe Staff

November 19, 2025

Larry Summers is immediately stepping back from his teaching duties at Harvard University as the school investigates his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesperson for Summers confirmed to the Globe.

Summers is also going on leave from his role as director of the Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, the spokesperson added.

“Mr. Summers has decided it’s in the best interest of the Center for him to go on leave from his role as Director as Harvard undertakes its review,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Emails released by a Congressional committee last week showed that Summers — who holds the highest faculty title at the university— maintained close ties to Epstein prior to his arrest in 2019.

Earlier in the week Summers had announced he would step back from his other public commitments, which included posts at centers and think tanks such as the Center for American Progress and the board of directors at OpenAI, but would continue teaching.

Jeffrey Epstein helped broker a major gift for Larry Summers’ wife. She said it ‘changed everything’ for her at Harvard.

But amid mounting pressure for Harvard to cut ties with Summers, he made the decision — first reported by The Harvard Crimson — not to finish teaching this semester.

“His co-teachers will complete the remaining three class sessions of the courses he has been teaching with them this semester, and he is not scheduled to teach next semester,” the spokesperson added.

A spokesperson clarified that Summers is not resigning from either post at Harvard, but instead will go on leave as the university conducts its investigation. Summers has also communicated his decision to the University, a Harvard spokesperson told the Globe.

Summers previously served as president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006, ultimately resigning amid controversy. He first joined the Harvard faculty in 1983 as an economics professor.

His ties to Epstein go back decades and had been disclosed prior to the cache of emails released last week by lawmakers. But the new emails showed he maintained much closer ties to the convicted sex offender.

Elisa New, a Harvard poetry professor emerita and wife of Summers, also corresponded with Epstein, including over a sizable gift he helped broker, the Globe reported Tuesday. The gift was not included in Harvard’s 2020 report on Epstein’s ties to the university, but a Harvard spokesperson said in response to Globe questions the school would begin a fresh review of ties between Epstein and university figures mentioned in the recently released emails.

Epstein, a financier who had close ties to figures ranging from President Donald Trump to the former Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom, was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking crimes. He died in jail a month later in what officials ruled a suicide.

Just one day earlier, Summers told students in his introductory economics class that while he regrets his correspondence with Epstein, he planned to continue teaching.

“I think it’s very important to fulfill my teaching obligations,” he told the students on Tuesday, according to a video recording of the class reviewed by the Globe. “And so, with your permission, we’re going to go forward and talk about the material in the class.”

Aidan Ryan can be reached at aidan.ryan@globe.com. Follow him @aidanfitzryan.