Summers visited Epstein's private island during 2005 honeymoon

Embattled Harvard professor Larry Summers and his wife briefly visited convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's private island during their honeymoon in 2005.

The visit came three years before Epstein's 2008 guilty plea to charges of solicitation of prostitution and of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18 in a Florida court. He served 13 months in a county jail but critics of the plea agreement — which allowed Epstein to cop to local charges in exchange for avoiding dozens of federal charges — called it the "deal of the century."

The honeymoon trip was first reported by the Harvard Crimson.

A Summers spokesperson confirmed to the Crimson that the couple visited Epstein's island "for less than a day" during their honeymoon in the Caribbean. The spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WBUR.

Summers has not been charged or implicated in any criminal activity related to Epstein.

Summers' ties with Epstein have made front page news in recent days, as emails between the two men surfaced showing the former U.S. Treasury secretary asking the convicted sex offender for relationship advice with a woman that was not his wife, whom he called a "mentee."

Summers' wife, Harvard professor emeritus Elisa New, has her own ties to Epstein. Epstein helped facilitate a donation in support of New's work, according to a Boston Globe report, and she has correspondence with Epstein in the disclosed files.

In one November 2018 email, New wrote to Epstein: "I'm going upstairs to hunt for my copy of Lolita, or will get on my kindle and reread on our way to Australia." She went on to recommend he read "My Antonia" by Willa Cather, on his next long plane trip. "The prose is gorgeous, and the book has — come to think of it — similar themes to Lolita in that it's about a man whose whole life is stamped forever by his impression of a young girl."

Epstein's plane, which carried young girls to his island, has been called the Lolita Express.

Summers, 70, a prolific public speaker, has been in professional free fall since the emails came to light. He's announced he's taking a leave from Harvard and stepping back from teaching and "public commitments" outside the school, including quitting the boards of OpenAI and several nonprofit economics groups.