“Former Harvard University President Larry Summers said he would be stepping back from public commitments after receiving criticism over his correspondence with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Summers: “I am 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.”
President Trump said he would sign the bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files relating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein if it comes to his desk, ABC News reports.
Said Trump: “I’m all for it.”
He added: “Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it. But don’t talk about it too much, because, honestly, I don’t want it to take away from us. It’s really a Democrat problem.”
Timothy O’Brien: “The reality is that it was conspiracy-minded Republicans who set the Epstein firestorm in motion last summer, outraged that Trump’s Justice Department ended an investigation into Epstein’s suicide and clientele.”
“Trump, who hasn’t been accused of any crimes in connection with Epstein, once made political hay stoking conspiracy theories about Epstein’s relationships with elites. He knitted that tale into a broader narrative about institutional malfeasance smothering average Americans, and it may not have occurred to him that some of the traps he set would eventually snap back.”
“It should have crossed Trump’s mind, of course. After all, he and Epstein were pals. Trump once bragged to me that their friendship was stronger than mere business after showing me a prized Palm Beach property that he had outbid Epstein to secure.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Harvard University should sever ties with Larry Summers, the school’s former president and one of its most prominent faculty members — putting new pressure on the elite university to hold Summers accountable for his intimate friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, CNN reports.
Playbook: “Firstly — we have just witnessed Trump U-turn under congressional pressure, a rarity indeed in 2025. Trump shifted position because he was going to lose anyway and wants to salvage the situation as best he can. That sound you could hear was the president’s extraordinary authority over his party slipping away … though now he can at least try to own the result. But it’s definitely a moment.”
“Secondly — hopes will grow among campaigners that we’ll actually see these files. Tomorrow’s result was already a near-certainty, but the assumption had always been that the bill would die in the Senate. But if the president’s position is that House Republicans should vote to release the files, then why should it be different for senators? Indeed, why not just release them himself? That debate becomes a live one today.”
“Thirdly — Trump’s about-face has big implications within the MAGA rank-and-file, where the failure to release the files back in July had caused widespread disenchantment. Supporters on social media sounded pleased and relieved last night, with Trump potentially on a path to redemption with the angriest corners of his base if he presses ahead. But where this goes next is far from clear.”
Bloomberg: “Epstein, a university dropout, was an avid reader with eclectic tastes—or at least a voracious purchaser of books, according to receipts from Amazon that were sent to his private Yahoo account. The purchases don’t reveal all. He may have given some books to others, and anyone who’s ever bought a book knows it doesn’t necessarily get read.”
“But they illuminate some of what interested him: genes, Vatican conspiracy, Woody Allen, negotiation, Trump, high modernism, middlebrow erotica and why we love the people who hurt us.”
“President Trump just attacked me and lied about me. I haven’t called him at all, but I did send these text messages today. Apparently this is what sent him over the edge. The Epstein files.”
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), on X.
“Hundreds of texts over almost a year show MAGA influencer Steve Bannon and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein workshopping legal and media strategies to protect Epstein from the legal and publicity quagmire that enveloped him in the last year of his life,” The Guardian reports.
“The texts, released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, show that as early as June 2018, the pair were devising responses to the gathering storm of public outrage about Epstein’s criminal history, his favorable treatment by the justice system, and his friendships with powerful figures in business, politics, and academia.”
“Bannon conspiratorially described the renewed scrutiny of Epstein as a ‘sophisticated op’, and over time he counseled Epstein in his adversarial responses to media outlets, the justice system, and his victims.”
“Donald Trump is mentioned in Jeffrey Epstein’s emails over 1,000 times — the most cited person in the tranche released this week by the House Oversight Committee,” the Miami Herald reports.
Adam Serwer: “As long as sex crimes might justify rumormongering about a political rival, or a smear campaign against a marginalized group, right-wing media incessantly promoted conspiracy theories about the issue.”
“But as soon as one of their own became implicated, they conveniently lost interest, or began minimizing Epstein’s crimes.”
“President Trump announced on Friday that he wanted the Justice Department to investigate high-profile Democrats — including former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and the venture capitalist and megadonor Reid Hoffman — who he alleged had ties to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,” the New York Times reports.
Jonathan Lemire: “Since his return to office, President Donald Trump has missed few chances to flex the power he wields over the nation’s most formidable institutions and its wealthiest people. So when the White House announced that Trump would host the latest in a series of dinners with top business executives, this time including JPMorgan Chase head Jamie Dimon and the chief executive of Nasdaq, reporters in the White House press pool prepared to watch Trump show off.”
“Nope. Last night’s dinner was closed to the press. No reporter was even given a glance. And later, when the White House held a signing ceremony for the president to officially end the longest federal-government shutdown in history, the reporters present were quickly whisked out of the Oval Office. Today, too, he didn’t talk to the press after signing an executive order alongside the first lady in the East Room. The president, to be clear, had not suddenly become camera-shy. But he had indicated to aides that he didn’t want to face reporters’ questions, because every inquiry was going to be about the one subject that Trump, for all his power, simply can’t make go away.”
President Trump went after what he called “weak Republicans” for backing an effort to compel the Justice Department to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Deadline reports.
Said Trump, on Truth Social: “The Democrats are doing everything in their withering power to push the Epstein Hoax again, despite the DOJ releasing 50,000 pages of documents, in order to deflect from all of their bad policies and losses, especially the SHUTDOWN EMBARRASSMENT, where their party is in total disarray, and has no idea what to do. Some Weak Republicans have fallen into their clutches because they are soft and foolish.”
“Jeffrey Epstein was not a pedophile… He was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15 year old girls… There’s a difference between a 15 year old and a 5 year old.”
— Megyn Kelly, on her Sirius XM show.
“There is no question that what we have seen over the last six months is a massive cover up effort by Donald Trump to prevent the release of the DOJ’s Epstein files.”
— Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), on CNN.
“In text messages sent in 2017, disgraced financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein appears to position himself as a middleman between president Donald Trump’s administration and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, even seemingly representing himself as passing on information directly from Trump to Gates through an intermediary,” Wired reports.
“The messages, which the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released on Wednesday and originated with the Epstein estate, begin on January 27, 2017, years after Epstein had already pleaded guilty to state prostitution solicitation charges. In them, Epstein purports to show intimate awareness of Trump’s plans for domestic and global public health policy, and to be directly familiar with the president’s thinking.”
“Trump has continued to claim, as recently as this summer, that he stopped speaking with Epstein around 2004.”
“Jeffrey Epstein is back in the news — and it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the president,” Politico reports.
“Following a brutal week for President Donald Trump during which his party took a beating at the polls, the Supreme Court seemed skeptical of his beloved tariffs and Republicans continued to feud over accusations of antisemitism, the White House had hoped to take a victory lap on ending the 43-day government shutdown.”
“But on Wednesday, House Democrats released documents revealing that, in the words of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Trump “knew about the girls” the late convicted sex offender was trafficking, the latest blow to a White House already reeling from a series of setbacks in recent days.”
Jonathan Chait: “Of all of Trump’s scandals, his relationship with Epstein—if you ignore the stomach-churning human toll involved—may be the richest source of black comedy. Some of Trump’s most devoted worshippers chose the very issue of Epstein’s misdeeds and supposed cabal of elite backers as the fantasy onto which they projected a valiant role for their hero.”
“Trump was meant to courageously release all of the available evidence for public scrutiny. Instead, this scandal has turned out to implicate him personally.”
A side note: “This is a risk inherent in building a personality cult around one of the worst human beings in the United States—almost any moral violation you pick will, statistically, have a high likelihood of appearing somewhere on his résumé.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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