Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced he is resigning from its board, days after he asked for it after Congress released documents about him that showed Summers had a close relationship with a convicted sex offender despite his actions being revealed and his conviction. Summers, also a former president of the University, said he would step back from all public duties, adding that the move was intended to allow him to “rebuild trust and restore relationships with those close to him.”
Summers has come under fire after the House Oversight Committee released excerpts of his correspondence with Epstein. Harvard University, where Summers remains a professor, will launch a new investigation into the individuals included in the emails, a university spokesman said, without naming Summers.
Announcement from OpenAI as well
“Larry has decided to step down from the OpenAI Board of Directors and we respect his decision. We value his contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board,” OpenAI’s board of directors said in a statement. The move, first revealed by Axios, comes a day after the Republican-controlled Congress voted to mandate the release of Justice Department files on Epstein — a development that President Donald Trump had long sought to prevent, until he reversed course in recent days when he saw that an override of his denial was inevitable.
Trump’s moves
Trump has ordered the Justice Department to investigate Summers and other prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein, among other things, as he tries to deflect attention from his own relationship with the convicted stockbroker. Trump has said he is not connected to Epstein’s criminal activities. The Epstein scandal has been a political thorn in Trump’s side for months, in part because he had fueled conspiracy theories about Epstein among his supporters. Q Just 20% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the issue.
Many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein’s relationships with high-powered figures and withheld details about his death in a Manhattan prison in 2019, which was ruled a suicide.
Summers served as Treasury Secretary under former President Bill Clinton and as Director of the National Economic Council under former President Barack Obama.
He joined OpenAI’s board in late 2023, following the brief ouster of the company’s CEO, Sam Altman.
