What to know about Larry Summers' ties to Jeffrey Epstein

Driving the news: Questions about Summers and Epstein's relationship began to swirl after a House panel released years of emails between the two last week, and the fallout has been swift.

• President Trump said he'd be launching an investigation into Summers, and Harvard University said the same on Wednesday.
• Almost simultaneously, Summers told Axios that he'd be stepping down from his influential position as one of OpenAI's board members as well.

What they're saying: "In line with my announcement to step away from my public commitments, I have also decided to resign from the board of OpenAI," Summers said in a Wednesday statement to Axios.

• Earlier this week, he also said he was "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," he added.

Here's everything you need to know about Larry Summers:

What was his relationship with Epstein?

Epstein donated $9.1 million to Harvard in between 1998 and 2008, ending before his conviction in Florida.

• The university later ordered a review of the gifts, and Harvard's president at the time, Lawrence Bacow, called Epstein's crimes "utterly abhorrent . . . repulsive and reprehensible," and expressed "profound[] regret" about "Harvard's past association with him."

Despite that damning rebuke, Summers continued to associate with Epstein for years, even soliciting advice on his relationship with a woman he was mentoring.

• Epstein referred to himself as Summers' "wing man" in a message less than a year before Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors in 2019.

What did his tenure at Harvard look like?

Summers is a professor and Harvard's president emeritus, as well as the director of the school's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.

• He also became one of the school's youngest members to become a tenured faculty member in 1983, according to his university bio.

Despite Harvard's new investigation, Summers is still a professor at the Ivy.

• He teaches five courses at the Boston-area university, including two large undergraduate classes, according to the Crimson, the school's newspaper.
• Several of his students have also called for him to step back from teaching, according to the Crimson and an Axios review of social media posts.

Flashback: Summers faced widespread condemnation in 2005 for suggesting during a speech at Harvard that men were more likely than women to have better "mathematical" and "scientific" ability, which he later apologized for.

What other public commitments does he currently have?

Spokespeople for the progressive think tank Center for American Progress, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and economic policy shop Yale Budget Lab all confirmed to Axios that Summers is out.

• Bloomberg News also confirmed that Summers is no longer a columnist with the paper. The New York Times told Axios the legacy paper does not intend on renewing his one-year contract when it ends in January.

What's his economic legacy?

Summers was instrumental in the Treasury's decision to deregulate derivatives in the 1990s, which later played a key role in the 2008 financial crisis.

• He also opposed a push for tighter goals on carbon emissions, as Axios previously reported.

As the World Bank's chief economist, he wrote a memo saying that "the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable."

What about his Silicon Valley connections?

He championed digital currencies before they became cool and was once an advisor at Barry Silbert's Digital Currency Group.

• Silbert and DCG have since been charged with defrauding over 230,000 investors out of more than $1 billion.

Summers has also sat on the boards of Block and LendingClub, and consulted for Citigroup, Andreessen Horowitz and others.

Go deeper: Trump threatens Justice Department probe into Epstein-Clinton relationship