Larry Summers takes leave from teaching at Harvard after Epstein emails

Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers abruptly went on leave on Wednesday from teaching at Harvard University, where he once served as president, over recently released emails showing he maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Summers’ spokesperson said.

Summers had been retreating from his public commitments amid the fallout of the emails revelation, but he had maintained that he would continue teaching economics classes at Harvard.

Yet by Wednesday evening, Summers had not only retreated from his teaching classes but also as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Centre for Business and Government with the Kennedy Harvard School.

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

It was not immediately clear if Summers would return to teaching in the upcoming semester. Summers’ decision to go on leave was first reported by The Harvard Crimson.

Harvard did not mention Summers by name in its decision to restart an investigation, but the move follows the release of emails showing that he was friendly with Epstein long after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008.