WASHINGTON – It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime: sun-soaked beaches, whispered vows, and a private escape for lovebirds fresh off the altar. But for economist Larry Summers and his new bride Elisa New, their December 2005 honeymoon took a dark detour – straight to Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous “Pedo Island,” choppered in alongside Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker who would later stand trial for grooming minors for the billionaire predator.

The bombshell revelation, buried in a trove of over 20,000 pages of Epstein estate documents unsealed this week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has ignited a firestorm around the former Treasury Secretary and Harvard heavyweight. Summers, 70, and New, a Harvard literature professor, tied the knot on December 11, 2005, in a Cambridge ceremony attended by A-listers. Just days later, flight logs show the couple boarding Epstein’s private jet for a whirlwind jaunt to the U.S. Virgin Islands – Little St. James, the 72-acre playground prosecutors branded a hub for Epstein’s underage orgies.

According to the logs, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Summers and New touched down via helicopter on the island for a “brief visit of less than a day” before jetting off to St. John and Jamaica. Tagging along on the same flight? Maxwell, then 44, Epstein’s right-hand enabler, who six months earlier had dodged early scrutiny in Palm Beach cops’ probe into the rape of a 14-year-old girl at Epstein’s Florida mansion. The island hop happened well before Epstein’s 2008 plea deal – but after red flags were waving like palm fronds in a hurricane.

“This wasn’t some innocent layover,” a source close to the document release told the Post. “Epstein’s logs paint a picture of casual access for the elite, with Maxwell as the velvet rope. Summers knew Epstein from Harvard circles; this was no cold call.”

The emails – a chummy chain spanning years – add fuel to the inferno. Unearthed in the committee’s probe into Epstein’s web of influence, they show Summers firing off notes to the financier as late as the day before Epstein’s 2019 jailhouse suicide. One missive from 2005 dangles a cryptic invite: Summers pitching Epstein on a “woman of interest” for a potential hookup, signed off with academic flair. Another, post-2008 plea, sees Summers soliciting Epstein’s “advice” on economic policy, blind to the optics of cozying up to a registered sex offender.

Summers’ camp is scrambling. A spokesperson fired back: “Mr. Summers and Ms. New spent their honeymoon in St. John and Jamaica in December 2005, which was long before Mr. Epstein was arrested for the first time. As part of that trip, they made a brief visit of less than a day to Mr. Epstein’s island.” But the damage? It’s done. Just two days after the emails dropped on November 17, Summers bolted from OpenAI’s board – where he’d been a vocal defender of CEO Sam Altman – citing “personal reasons.” Harvard whispers say he’s also ditching his teaching gig, with students already petitioning deans: “No lectures from Lolita Express lecturers.”

The timing reeks of scorched earth. Summers, who helmed the White House National Economic Council under Obama and Treasury under Clinton, has long danced on the edge of controversy – from deregulating banks pre-2008 crash to slamming student debt relief as “entitled whining.” But Epstein? That’s a third rail. The financier’s “black book” lists Summers among dozens of power players – Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz – who’ve faced heat for island jaunts or jet rides. Maxwell, serving 20 years upstate, smirked at her 2021 trial: “Everyone knew Jeffrey’s parties were legendary.” Summers? Not so much.

Legal eagles are circling. The Oversight Committee’s Democratic chair, Rep. Jamie Raskin, demanded full unredacted logs Tuesday, blasting the GOP-led probe as “selective outrage.” “If Summers was blind to Epstein’s depravity, that’s negligence,” Raskin thundered on MSNBC. “If not? It’s complicity.” Victims’ advocates piled on: Virginia Giuffre, who sued Prince Andrew into oblivion, tweeted from her “Nobody’s Girl” promo tour: “Another suit on the island? No coincidence. These men flew in, partied, and flew out – leaving girls behind.”

New, 55, the academic who snagged Summers after a whirlwind romance, has stayed mum. Her lit-crit classes at Harvard – dissecting Austen and Woolf – now draw overflow crowds, some snapping pics of her syllabus for “Epstein footnotes.” Insiders say the couple’s 2005 nuptials were “fairy-tale stuff,” with New’s ex-husband, a tech exec, toasting the pair. But paradise lost: Epstein’s island, with its blue-striped temple and guest villas wired for surveillance, was no Eden. Prosecutors alleged it hosted “massages” that devolved into assaults, with Maxwell procuring teens as young as 14.

Broader ripples? The docs expose Epstein’s economic Svengali act: donations to Harvard ($30 million, yanked post-arrest), MIT ($850K, clawed back), and whispers of policy sway on everything from derivatives to deficits. Summers, who once quipped “economists are like dentists – necessary but painful,” now faces the drill. Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins Jr. sniped: “Summers didn’t need Epstein’s money; he needed the mirror.”

As D.C. buzzes, Summers hunkers down in Boston, his Charles River view a far cry from turquoise waters. No public mea culpa yet – just a LinkedIn update: “Stepping back to reflect.” For New, the honeymoon suite’s a haunted memory. And for Epstein’s ghosts? Another name etched in the ledger, a reminder that power’s private jets land on tainted tarmac.

The Oversight probe rolls on, with more logs due next month. Will Summers testify? Or fade like a bad bet? One thing’s clear: in the Epstein echo chamber, honeymoons end in handcuffs – metaphorical, for now.