Epstein files release sets a horrible precedent

Former Harvard president Larry Summers has now lost virtually every professional association after a House committee released emails of his exchanges with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Many of the correspondences are embarrassing. There’s going to be little, if any, sympathy for a well-known elite who’s angered conservatives and liberals and befriends creeps. And perhaps Summers doesn’t deserve any.

Even so, there isn’t even a hint of illegality in those emails. There’s nothing suggesting that Summers participated in any kind of impropriety or conspiracy. The only purpose of the release was to destroy Summers.