Former Harvard President Larry Summers announced on February 25, 2026, that he would be officially resigning from his academic and faculty appointments at the famous Ivy League institution at the close of the academic year, a spokesman for Harvard said. Summers’s resignation comes after troubling email communications with now-deceased convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were uncovered.
A statement from the Harvard spokesperson kicked off by saying that Summers turned in a letter of resignation to Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein, who accepted it due to the communications with Epstein amid an ongoing investigation and review being conducted by the University. It goes on to add that Summers is also stepping down from his position as the co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.
“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,” the statement, delivered to Fox News, went on to say.
“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,” the spokesperson continued, according to the report. Summers, who previously worked in the Clinton and Obama administrations, released a statement of his own through the spokesperson.
“I have made the difficult decision to retire from my Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year,” Summers said. “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. 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.”
In November 2025, Summers stated that he would be stepping away from his teaching duties as outrage grew over the messages he exchanged with Epstein, who was convicted of pedophilia and sex trafficking. Details concerning the communications came to light after the White House released a batch of emails related to Epstein and his sex trafficking operation.
During his time in the Obama administration, he served as an economic adviser. He also served as the U.S. Treasury Secretary under former President Bill Clinton. In November, progressive think-tank Center for American Progress announced that Summers would be ending his fellowship with the organization. Not long after, a spokesperson for the Budget Lab at Yale also revealed that Summers was no longer a member of the advisory group.
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President Donald Trump announced at the time, through a post published on Truth Social, that he would be requesting the Justice Department to open an investigation into Summers concerning his relationship with Epstein. That investigation also included probes into former President Bill Clinton and major Democratic Party donor and LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman.
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