Larry Summers

was handed a lifetime ban by the

American Economic Association

after details of the former Harvard president and

United States Treasury Secretary’s

connection to sex offender

Jeffrey Epstein

surfaced last month.

“The AEA condemns Mr. Summers’ conduct, as reflected in publicly reported communications, as fundamentally inconsistent with its standards of professional integrity and with the trust placed in mentors within the economics profession,” the association said in a statement Tuesday.

Summers for years communicated with Epstein on topics from relationships to President Donald Trump, according to emails released by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The documents revealed exchanges with a series of high-profile figures, including other academics, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Peter Mandelson, who was fired this year from his post as the United Kingdom ambassador to the United States. Epstein died in prison in 2019 after being arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors. His death was ruled a suicide.

Summers, Treasury Secretary from 1999 to 2001, said in a statement last month that he was “deeply ashamed” of his actions and chose to step back from public commitments, including his role as a paid contributor to Bloomberg TV.

Summers became a tenured professor at Harvard at 28 and won the John Bates Clark Medal given to outstanding American economist under age 40 by the AEA. He resigned as president of Harvard in 2006 after clashing with faculty, including after commenting that innate differences in sex kept women from flourishing in math and science careers.

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Bloomberg.com