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Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers abruptly went on leave Wednesday from teaching at Harvard University, where he once served as president, over recently released emails showing he maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, his spokesperson said.
Summers had been retreating from his public commitments amid the fallout from the revelations of his connections with the late sex offender Epstein, but he had maintained that he would continue teaching economics classes at Harvard.
Yet by Wednesday evening, Summers had not only stepped back from teaching classes but also from his role as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government with the Harvard Kennedy School.
"Mr. Summers has decided it's in the best interest of the Center for him to go on leave from his role as Director as Harvard undertakes its review. His co-teachers will complete the remaining three class sessions of the courses he has been teaching with them this semester, and he is not scheduled to teach next semester," Summers' spokesperson Steven Goldberg said.
It was not immediately clear if Summers would return to teaching in the upcoming semester. Summers' decision to go on leave was first reported by The Harvard Crimson newspaper.
Harvard did not mention Summers by name in its decision to restart an investigation, but the move follows the release of emails showing he was friendly with Epstein long after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008.
By Wednesday, the once highly regarded economics expert had been facing increased scrutiny over choosing to stay in the teaching role.
Some students filmed his appearance before a class of undergraduates on Tuesday, where he stressed he thought it was important to continue teaching.
Earlier Wednesday, Summers severed ties with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.
“Larry has decided to resign from the OpenAI board of directors, and we respect his decision,” the board said in a statement.
“We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the board.”
The announcement arrived a day after Summers said he was stepping back from public commitments.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress,” Summers said in a separate statement about his departure from OpenAI.
He joined the OpenAI board in November 2023, part of an effort to restore stability at the nonprofit and bring back Sam Altman as CEO after its previous board members fired Altman days earlier.
Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019, was a convicted sex offender infamous for his connections to wealthy and powerful people, making him a fixture of outrage and conspiracy theories about wrongdoing among American elites.
On Wednesday evening, U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law a bill forcing the Justice Department to release its files on their investigations into Epstein, despite Trump previously resisting their release.
WATCH | U.S. Congress passes bill to release Epstein files:The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly agreed to pass a bill forcing the Justice Department to release its files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Senate also approved and President Donald Trump said he will sign the bill when it lands on his desk.