The notorious paedophile also sent Mandelson $50,000, according to the latest trove of documents.
Former Labour peer Lord Mandelson has been pictured half naked in newly released Epstein files.
The notorious paedophile also sent Mandelson $50,000, according to the latest trove of documents. In the pictures, Mandelson was pictured half dressed alongside a woman in a bathrobe.
Other emails in the release, unearthed yesterday, show Epstein sent Lord Mandelson’s partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva $10,000 in 2009. But bank statements seen by the Sunday Mirror show two more payments of $25,000 were made to different accounts in Lord Mandelson’s name five years earlier, in June 2004.
Inclusion in the Epstein files is not an indication of guilt or awareness of Epstein’s crimes.
A spokesman for Lord Mandelson said he has no recollection of receiving such a sum from Epstein and he has no knowledge as to whether these documents are genuine. They said Lord Mandelson regrets ever having met Epstein and deeply regrets believing his lies and maintaining contact with him.
Regarding the photographs, Lord Mandelson told the Sunday Mirror: “I cannot place the location or the woman and I cannot think what the circumstances were.”
Hundreds of emails between Lord Mandelson and the paedophile reveal a friendly relationship between the pair over many years, with Mandelson arranging to stay at Epstein’s property in New York City and chatting about politics.
In one email thread from 2012, Epstein and his associates discuss arranging for two women to come to Epstein’s house to meet Lord Mandelson while he was staying there. “Hope all is well,” Lesley Goff, an associate of Epstein wrote in an email to a woman identified as “Svetlana”.
“Jeffrey will be in NY next week and Peter Mandelson will be around as well. Jeffrey was asking if you and “your friend” could come by and meet Peter.” Lord Mandelson said: “I do not know who [Svetlana] is and I do not recall meeting her or her female friend.”
In an email exchange from 2010, Lord Mandelson chatted to Epstein about Gordon Brown’s infamous ‘bigotgate’ gaffe within an hour of it happening. During the 2010 campaign, the former PM was caught calling Rochdale pensioner Gillian Duffy a “bigoted woman” on a hot mic while driving away from a meet and greet in his car.
Less than an hour later – and four minutes before Brown did his infamous ‘head in hands’ Radio 2 interview where he heard the clip for the first time, Mandelson sent Epstein a message from his Blackberry, which read: “GB just caught on tape describing a pensioner woman as a bigot for raising immigration with him. The election catches fire.”
Epstein replied later, giving advice for how Brown should handle it: “Whoops…I already read it. He can’t backpedal now. He repudiates. All unfairness. Wherever it is found.”
In an email from 2009, Lord Mandelson asks Epstein if he can “stay at yours Friday-Sunday this weekend.” Epstein asks “press issues?” before saying: “Your call I’m thrilled to host and sad I’m not there.” Mandelson replies that it should be OK adding: “Better ‘facilities’ at yours.” At this point, Epstein replied to someone else and copied Mandelson in, asking them to “implement” the arrangements.
In a statement following his sacking as Ambassador to the US last year, Lord Mandelson said: “I was wrong to believe Epstein following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered. I was never culpable or complicit in his crimes. Like everyone else I learned the actual truth about him after his death. But his victims did know what he was doing, their voices were not heard and I am sorry I was amongst those who believed him over them.”