British politician Peter Mandelson is leaving the House of Lords as he faces fresh questions about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Peter Mandelson (Reuters)The Speaker of the House of Lords said Mandelson had announced he would retire from the upper house of parliament effective Wednesday.
Mandelson is facing a possible police investigation into evidence that the late sex offender passed sensitive government information.
The British government said on Tuesday it had sent a file of material to police investigating allegations that Labor Party politician Peter Mandelson passed sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein.
Detectives are assessing whether Mandelson should face a criminal investigation for leaking to the late sex offender.
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Prime Minister Keir Starmer told her cabinet she was “horrified” by the revelations in the newly released Epstein files and worried that more details were yet to come out.
Starmer’s government is drafting legislation to kick Mandelson out of Parliament and strip him of the noble title of Lord Mandelson that comes with his lifetime membership in the House of Lords.
A trove of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents released by the US Department of Justice has revealed troubling revelations about 72-year-old Mandelson, who served in senior government roles under the previous Labor government and was Britain’s ambassador to Washington until Sturmer sacked him in September over his relationship with Epstein.
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The newly released files detail Mandelson’s communications with the disgraced financier, including emails sending nuggets of political information, which some critics say could break the law. Police said they are reviewing reports of misconduct to “determine whether it meets the threshold for an investigation.”
Starmer’s spokesman Tom Wells said the government had sent police its assessment that the Mandelson-Epstein documents contained “potentially market-sensitive information” about the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath that should not have been shared outside the government.
Among the revelations in the files:In 2003-2004, bank documents show Epstein sent three payments totaling $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson or his partner Reynaldo Avila da Silva. Mandelson said he does not recall receiving the money and will investigate whether the documents are genuine. But he resigned from the ruling Labor Party on Sunday, saying he did not want to cause the party “further embarrassment”.
In 2008, Epstein avoided federal trial by pleading guilty to state charges of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution in Florida. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Emails and text messages show that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein continued after the financier’s conviction.
In 2009, Epstein sent da Silva £10,000 (about $13,650 at today’s rates) to pay for an osteopathy course. Mandelson told the Times of London that “in retrospect, it was clearly an error in our collective judgment to accept Renaldo’s offer.”
Also in 2009, Mandelson, then the UK government’s business secretary, told Epstein that he would lobby other members of the government to cut taxes on bankers’ bonuses.
That same year, Mandelson sent Epstein an internal government report discussing ways the UK could raise money after the 2008 global financial crisis, including selling government assets. Mandelson wrote: “Interesting note that went to the Prime Minister.”
In May 2010, Mandelson texted Epstein that “sources tell me the 500 b euro bailout” was almost complete. The message was dated hours before European governments announced a 500 billion euro deal to shore up the single currency.
Starmer ordered the civil service to conduct an “urgent” review of all Mandelsohn’s communications with Epstein while in government.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Mandelsohn’s friendship with Epstein was “treasonous on many levels”.
“It’s a betrayal of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims that he continued that association and that friendship so long after his conviction,” Streeting told the BBC. “This is a betrayal of not just one, but two Prime Ministers” – Gordon Brown, UK leader and Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010.
Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on US federal charges that he sexually assaulted dozens of girls.
An email requesting comment on the documents was sent to Mandelson via the House of Lords.
