Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said he will step back from most public roles over his past ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying he was "deeply ashamed" of his actions, media reports said.
"I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein," Summers said in a statement circulated to several U.S. media outlets. "I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused."
Summers served under former president Bill Clinton and later advised former president Barack Obama, as well as presiding over Harvard University in the early 2000s. Until now, he had combined his Harvard professorship with roles including board member at OpenAI and columnist at Bloomberg News.
Emails and text messages released recently by a U.S. House committee showed extensive personal exchanges between Summers and Epstein, ending shortly before Epstein's arrest in 2019. Harvard's student newspaper, The Crimson, reported that the messages included disparaging remarks about women.
Summers said he will continue teaching but withdraw from public commitments to rebuild trust and repair personal relationships.
Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-profile connections, sexually abused and trafficked dozens of women and minors over many years. He died in a New York jail in 2019 at the age of 66 in what officials ruled a suicide.
House lawmakers are expected to vote on Tuesday on whether to release investigative records related to the Epstein case. However, it remains unclear whether the documents will ultimately be made public.
