Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced Monday that he will be "stepping back from public commitments" after the release of documents showing his email exchanges with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

"I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused," Summers, president emeritus and professor at Harvard University, was quoted by U.S. media as saying in a statement.

"I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein," Summers said. "While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me."

Both Democrats and Republicans have urged organizations to end their associations with Summers, after the House Oversight Committee released email exchanges between Epstein and Summers dating from 2013 to 2019.

Last Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released Epstein-related documents involving President Donald Trump. Republicans on the committee then released a far larger tranche of files as a countermeasure, accusing the Democrats of cherry-picking.

Many Republicans maintain that Trump did nothing wrong and accuse Democrats of deliberately hyping the Epstein case to distract the public from the record-long 43-day federal government shutdown, which ended on Wednesday night.

On Friday, Trump directed the U.S. Justice Department to investigate high-profile Democrats connected to Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton, Summers and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who is a major Democratic donor.

U.S. media view the move as an attempt to counter the impact of the Epstein-related documents involving Trump that Democrats recently released.