But Summers—who stayed at Shleifer’s home when he interviewed at Harvard for the presidency in 2000, and has spent summers with the economist in Cape Cod—has said in the past he was “concerned to make sure” that Shleifer stay at Harvard.

In a deposition given to U.S. attorneys on March 13, 2002, Summers testified that he had spoken to then-Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles about Shleifer, after Summers had been selected for the presidency of the University.

“I expressed to Dean Knowles at some point that I was concerned to make sure that Professor Shleifer remained at Harvard, because I felt that he made a great contribution to the economics department and that I knew there was a lot swirling, and expressed the hope that Dean Knowles would be attentive to that,” Summers testified.

According to his testimony, Summers did not recall whether the conversation with Knowles had taken place before or after his decision to recuse himself from the case.

Summers also testified that he was aware of a perception in Harvard’s economics department that “Andrei was in some way or another being screwed.”

Citing Summers’ decision to recuse himself, the president’s spokesman declined comment on the case.