The Kompromat Question

Epstein Files GriftMatrix
Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein in conversation at an elegant Manhattan townhouse, surveillance cameras visible on ceiling, documents scattered on table, tense atmosphere, cinematic lighting

Why Did Larry Summers Ask a Sex Offender About Russian Intelligence?

I’m still going through the Epstein Estate files looking for evidence to add to The GriftMatrix – so, let’s talk about a former Treasury Secretary asking a convicted sex offender for dating advice…

Larry Summers resigned from the OpenAI board last month. Stepped back from Harvard. Went on leave from the Kennedy School. The reason: buried in the 20,000+ documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate that the House Oversight Committee released in November, there was something nobody expected. Larry Summers wasn’t just an acquaintance of Epstein’s. He was a confidant. A friend. Someone who texted Epstein about his romantic pursuits and asked him for advice on pursuing a woman he described as a “mentee” while married.

But that’s not what caught my attention.

On July 15, 2018 – the day before Trump’s disastrous Helsinki summit with Putin – Summers texted Epstein: “Do the Russians have stuff on Trump? Today was appalling even by his standards.”

Let that sink in. A former Treasury Secretary, a former Harvard President, a senior advisor to Obama – asking Jeffrey Epstein whether Russia had kompromat on the President of the United States. Not the CIA. Not the FBI. Not former colleagues in intelligence. Epstein.

Epstein’s response: “Not that I know. I would doubt it. He was totally predictable!” He then added: “My email is full with similar comments… he thinks he has charmed his adversary… he has no idea of the symbolism – he has no idea of most things.”

The question isn’t whether Epstein knew the answer. The question is why Summers thought he would. What made a former Treasury Secretary believe that a registered sex offender – convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor – would have insight into Russian intelligence operations against the President?

I mean – we all know – but we have to ask the question.

The communications between them span from at least 2013 to July 5, 2019. That last exchange happened the day before Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport. According to the Harvard Crimson, Summers wrote that morning that he was at Cape Cod with his family. The two men exchanged a brief flurry of literary one-liners. The thread ends at 1:27 p.m.

The next day, Epstein was in custody.

What the documents reveal isn’t just bad judgment. It’s a window into how power actually works. The Helsinki question wasn’t a one-off. In May 2017, just months into Trump’s first term, Summers asked Epstein another pointed question: “How guilty is Donald?”

How guilty is Donald – asked of Epstein. As if Epstein had some special knowledge about Trump’s culpability in – what exactly?

Summers then answered his own question: “Of crudity surely. Of gross ignorance surely. Of being utterly without the intellect temperament for job surely. Of being over line on family profiting very likely. Of gross disregard for appearances almost surely.” On Russian leverage, Summers was less certain: “Of Russians having financial leverage. Less clear.”

Epstein’s take: “your world does not understand how dumb he really is. he will blame everyone around him. for bad results.”

The Russia investigation was just getting started. Summers wanted Epstein’s read.

Harvard is now investigating. Summers stepped back from teaching. Elizabeth Warren called for Harvard to sever ties entirely, saying that if Summers “had so little ability to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein even after all that was publicly known about Epstein’s sex offenses involving underage girls, then Summers cannot be trusted to advise our nation’s politicians, policymakers, and institutions.”

Trump noticed. He announced he’s asking Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ to investigate Epstein’s involvement with Summers, along with Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, and JPMorgan Chase. Which is ironic given that Epstein’s documents include emails where Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls.”

But the kompromat question keeps nagging at me.

Why Epstein?

The answer may be that Epstein positioned himself as exactly this kind of source. His network included intelligence contacts – Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Prime Minister, was photographed entering Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse multiple times in 2016. The townhouse that had cameras everywhere. The operation that looked more like surveillance than finance.

Summers apparently believed Epstein had this kind of access.

Which means either Epstein convinced very smart people he was connected to intelligence networks, or he actually was.

Either way, on July 15, 2018, a former Treasury Secretary thought Jeffrey Epstein was the right person to ask about Russian kompromat on the President.

We found out because someone subpoenaed his estate. We found out because the House Oversight Committee released the documents. We found out because Epstein kept everything – every text, every email, every communication with the powerful people who kept coming back to him even after his conviction.

Larry Summers says he’s “deeply ashamed.” He should be. But shame isn’t the point.

The point is that the most connected people in America were treating a convicted sex offender like an intelligence asset. And some of them are still in positions of power.

SOURCES