Larry Summers takes ‘full responsibility’ for having ties with Epstein, steps back from public commitments. Details here

Former Harvard University president and former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said he would step back from public commitments after the release of Jeffrey Epstein's old emails. The sex offender's emails showed that Summers maintained friendly ties with Epstein even long after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008. Summers served his role in the US government under former president Bill Clinton - who was accused by Donald Trump of being close to Epstein.

Summers issued a formal statement on Monday (Nov 17) and said he would step back to “rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.”

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,” the statement said.

'Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing'

After Jeffrey Epstein's old emails were unearthed and created fresh controversy due to the mention of Donald Trump, the US president declared that he will request the Department of Justice (DoJ) to probe the former Democratic president's connections to the sexual offence case. After this, former US president Bill Clinton reacted.

“Jeffrey Epstein and I had a very bad relationship for many years. But he also saw strength, because I was president, so he dictated a couple of memos to himself,” Trump said.

“You’re gonna find out what did he know, with respect to Bill Clinton, with respect to the head of Harvard, with respect to all of those people that he knew, including JP Morgan Chase,” the POTUS added.

Reacting to this, Clinton's spokeswoman, Angel Ureña, stated in a brief statement on X: “These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.”