Harvard University professor Larry Summers is taking leave while the school investigates his and others’ ties with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesperson confirmed.

The former US treasury secretary and onetime Harvard president will stop teaching and step back as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.

A spokesperson told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that Summers believes “it’s in the best interest of the Center”.

Recently released emails indicate that Summers corresponded with Epstein until the day before the financier’s 2019 arrest for the alleged sex trafficking of minors.