Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has resigned from the OpenAI board, he said on Wednesday, several days after Congress released documents that showed Summers shared a close relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Summers said on Monday he will step back from all public commitments, days after President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate his and other prominent Democrats' ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Summers, a former president of Harvard University, where he is a professor, told the university's student newspaper that the move was to allow him "to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me."
The announcement came after the House Oversight Committee released thousands of files related to Epstein last week, including documents that showed personal correspondence between Summers and Epstein.
"I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,” Summers told The Crimson.
"While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort," Summers added.
Summers, a Democrat, served as Treasury Secretary under former President Bill Clinton and as National Economic Council director under former President Barack Obama. He currently serves on the board of OpenAI and as a director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.
"Larry has decided to resign from the OpenAI Board of Directors, and we respect his decision. We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board," OpenAI 's board of directors said in a statement.
The Epstein scandal has been a political thorn in Trump’s side for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters.
Trump supporters perceive cover-up from administration
Many Trump voters believe Bondi and other Trump officials have covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
Summers, a Democrat, served as former President Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary and former President Barack Obama's National Economic Council director.
He has served on the OpenAI board since late 2023, following the brief ouster of the ChatGPT maker's CEO Sam Altman.
Other prominent companies with ties to Summers include edu-tech firm Skillsoft, where he has been a board member since 2021, and Santander, where he chairs the bank's international advisory board.