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By Dan Gooding, Gabe Whisnant, and Joshua Rhett Miller
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Former Harvard President Larry Summers will step down from his remaining academic roles at the university at the end of the academic year, relinquishing his university professorship and resigning from his leadership post at the Harvard Kennedy School, the university confirmed.
Summers will remain on leave until that time and will not return to teaching or advising students.
"I have made the difficult decision to retire from my Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year," Summers said in a statement shared with Newsweek on Wednesday.
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"I will always be 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."
Why It Matters
The move follows months of mounting scrutiny after the release of emails showing Summers maintained a long‑standing personal relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein well after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. The fallout prompted Harvard to reopen a broader review of its historical ties to Epstein and led Summers to withdraw from several high‑profile roles as pressure intensified over his continued presence at the university.
More widely, scrutiny of the Epstein files is ongoing, with the House Oversight Committee and the Department of Justice having released millions of files, photos, and other documents related to investigations into Epstein's alleged years of sex trafficking. The Trump administration has been heavily criticized for its handling of the release of the files, after campaign promises of transparency.
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What To Know
Summers' decision means he will relinquish his Harvard professorship and no longer serve as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, per The Harvard Crimson. The move will end nearly a lifetime of connection to the Ivy League school for Summers, who was first there as a graduate student 50 years ago. Harvard's website says he was the "Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University."
Following the release of emails in November, which showed Summers exchanging frequent messages with Epstein up until the day before the late financier's arrest in July 2019, Summers had stepped back from teaching at Harvard and from other roles.
The emails, released by the House Oversight Committee, showed Summers confided in Epstein over several months, including personal matters unrelated to academia or university business. Harvard then launched its own review into Summers and other affiliates named for ties to Epstein.
Summers served as Treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001 and as director of the White House’s National Economic Council under former President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2010.
Summers’ most recent post on X criticizes the “moral bankruptcy” he claims led the Harvard Crimson student newspaper to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to end international support of Israel.
That sentiment “appeared to have spread to the news pages,” Summers wrote in November.
The post had more than 1,000 replies as of Wednesday, including many that referenced Summers’ prior ties to Epstein.
“Lawrence why were you talking to epstein back in 2018?” one user replied.
What People Are Saying
Larry Summers, in his statement shared with Newsweek: "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."
Jason Newton, a Harvard spokesperson, told Newsweek: “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.
“Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until that time.”
What happens Next
Summers will no longer be teaching or taking new advisees at Harvard. Meanwhile, scrutiny around others named in the Epstein files will likely continue, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress calling for arrests.
Update 2/25/26, 12:31 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 2/25/26, 2:26 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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