Harvard Students Under Disciplinary Probe Following Video of Former President’s Epstein Ties

By [Your Name] | Wednesday, December 17, 2025 at 10:19 p.m. EST

Harvard University has launched a secret disciplinary investigation into two students who posted videos featuring former president Larry Summers discussing his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The students, Rosie Couture and Lola DeAscentiis, uploaded footage from a lecture where Summers addressed his ties to Epstein. In the video, the students claimed they pressured Summers to step away from teaching at Harvard.

According to three people briefed on the matter, the investigation will determine whether the students violated university rules by attending a class they were not enrolled in—a move that occurred after Congress released emails showing a close relationship between Summers and Epstein. The students also allegedly recorded classes without consent and publicly shared those recordings.

The students wrote: “This is how classes start at Harvard: Professors apologizing for their ties to Jeffrey Epstein.”

Summers later stated he would step back from teaching, but one of the students attended a class the next day and filmed the new professor in action.

Harvard’s statement on classroom recording policies reads: “The College prohibits unauthorized recording of classroom proceedings to protect classrooms as spaces for intellectual exploration and risk-taking, to respect student privacy, and to prevent chilling effects that undermine participation and inquiry.”

Emails between Summers and Epstein reveal troubling exchanges. On November 30, 2018, Epstein wrote to Summers: “im a pretty good wing man, no?” The next day, Summers told Epstein he had texted someone about having “something brief to say” to her.

Summers’ wife, Elisa New, also communicated with Epstein multiple times. In a 2015 message, she thanked him for arranging financial support for her poetry project: “It really means a lot to me, all financial help aside, Jeffrey, that you are rooting for me and thinking about me.”

Harvard has previously acknowledged that Epstein visited the campus over 40 times after his 2008 sex crimes conviction and was granted access to a research center he helped establish.

Summers served as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001 and as Harvard’s president from 2001 to 2006. When asked about the emails last month, Summers expressed regret: “I have great regrets in my life” and called his association with Epstein a “major error in judgment.”

The university confirmed it is reviewing the ties between Summers and Epstein.