Lawrence H. Summers, a Harvard University economist and the school’s former president, will resign from teaching at the end of the academic year, according to a Harvard spokesperson.

The announcement comes months after documents released by the Department of Justice showed a close relationship between Summers and Jeffrey Epstein long after Epstein was convicted of prostitution involving a minor.

Summers, who has been on leave since November, will not return to teaching before he leaves the university. He has also resigned as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, the spokesperson said. His resignation comes “in connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government,” the spokesperson, Jason Newton, said in a statement.

The announcement was first reported by The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper.

Summers said in a statement that he had made “the difficult decision” to retire, and he “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.”

As president emeritus and a retired professor, he said, he looks forward to “engaging in research, analysis and commentary on a range of global economic issues.”

Summers’ resignation is the culmination of a cascade of new revelations in recent months about the nature of his relationship with Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges. Summers’ link to Epstein had been known for years, but emails released in November by a congressional committee revealed that they had maintained a deeply personal relationship, even after Epstein became a registered sex offender.

In their exchanges, the men bantered about Summers’ romantic interest in a woman who was not his wife. (Summers is married to a Harvard literature professor.) Epstein described himself as Summers’ wingman.

In 2019, Summers complained to Epstein about the woman’s involvement with someone else. “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy,’” he wrote. “I said awfully coy u are.”

Epstein wrote back, “shes smart. making you pay for past errors. ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy, you reacted well.”

In other messages, he referred to the woman using racist language. “I’d be happy to have a rational affair w yellow peril,” he wrote in a message to Epstein. Minutes before, the former Treasury secretary had written he was “way smitten with her so woukd sacrifuce lots for being w her.”

Harvard has been conducting a review of the university’s ties to Epstein, including through employees and donors.

A previous investigation by Harvard, which the university released in 2020, made only one explicit reference to Summers, noting that he had helped found a program envisioned by Epstein. In a footnote, the report mentioned an Epstein-related contribution to a nonprofit group led by Elisa New, Summers’ wife. But Harvard said it did not investigate the donation because it was not made directly to the university.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Mark Arsenault/David Degner
c. 2026 The New York Times Company