A former pal of convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein says he regrets “very, very deeply certainly” his companionship with the deceased New York Metropolis businessman, in his first public assertion since Epstein’s “birthday guide” launch revealed private correspondence between the pair.
Peter Mandelson, the present U.Ok. ambassador to the U.S., acknowledged his long-standing friendship with Epstein throughout an interview with British journalist Harry Cole on Wednesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump, together with Peter Mandelson, British Ambassador to america, addresses reporters within the Oval Workplace on the White Home on Could 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
(Anna Moneymaker / Getty Photos
Addressing scrutiny for a word he wrote Epstein within the birthday guide, through which he referred to him as his “finest pal,” Mandelson instructed Cole he felt “an incredible sense of sympathy for these individuals, these ladies, who suffered because of his [Epstein’s] behaviour and his unlawful prison actions.”
“And, secondly, I remorse very, very deeply certainly carrying on that affiliation with him for much longer than I ought to have executed, and I remorse very, very a lot that I fell for his lies,” he mentioned.
“I fell and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his unique prison case in Florida. Like very many individuals, I took that at face worth.”
Whereas Mandelson says he doesn’t consider he’s named within the Epstein recordsdata, he admitted there isn’t any doubt that there’s extra “correspondence” between him and Epstein that’s “going to floor.”
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“We all know they’re going to come out, we all know they’re going to be very embarrassing, and so they know I’m going profoundly to remorse ever having met him, and being launched to him within the first place, however I can’t rewrite historical past,” he instructed Cole.
“What I can do is specific my profound sympathy for individuals who had been badly handled by him … and I can settle for that I continued my affiliation with him for too lengthy.”
Mandelson’s response comes days after the U.S. Home Oversight Committee launched a full copy of an album of photographs and letters gifted to the previous financier by his aide and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, on his fiftieth birthday.
FILE – Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend an occasion in 2005 in New York Metropolis.
Getty Photos
The 238-page guide was unsealed alongside a stack of Epstein’s non-public paperwork, together with his will and an handle guide that comprises the names of royalty, world politicians, fashions and celebrities.
Additionally enclosed had been handwritten notes, together with from former U.S. president Invoice Clinton, who wrote of Epstein’s “childlike curiosity” and a “drive to make a distinction.”
On Wednesday, the Guardian reported that for the reason that correspondence between Mandelson and Epstein emerged, the U.Ok. authorities has assured that Prime Minister Kier Starmer maintains his confidence within the ambassador, including that his authorities was “targeted clearly on our relationship with the US, with President Trump coming for an unprecedented second state go to subsequent week.”
Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 whereas awaiting his intercourse trafficking trial, was identified for introducing his high-powered pals to younger, usually underage ladies. Nonetheless, Mandelson instructed Cole that over the course of his friendship with Epstein, he and his husband “by no means sought” nor had been they supplied unseemly introductions to ladies by Epstein.
“Maybe it’s as a result of I’m a homosexual man,” he mentioned.
Mandelson, a Labour peer, went on to explain Epstein as a “charismatic liar” and say he finds the contents of his letter to Epstein “very embarrassing.”
A part of Peter Mandelson’s word that he wrote to Jeffrey Epstein for his fiftieth birthday.
The U.S. Oversight Committee
U.Ok. Training Minister Josh MacAlister, throughout an interview on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, warned in opposition to discovering individuals “responsible by affiliation.”
“The entire method through which these individuals function and are in a position to proceed their abuse is commonly by being extremely manipulative. So we should be cautious to not make all people responsible by affiliation,” he mentioned, in response to the Guardian.
In Mandelson’s birthday message to Epstein, he additionally referred to him as “an clever, sharp-witted man,” who was “mysterious” and would “parachute” out and in of his life.
“However then he would parachute again in … Very often, taking you unexpectedly in some far off locations … Or in one in all his wonderful properties he likes to share along with his pals (yum yum),” Mandelson wrote.
The Home Oversight Committee launched information supplied by Epstein’s property pursuant to chairman James Comer’s subpoena issued on Aug. 25.
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