The sprawling Jeffrey Epstein scandal has claimed a new casualty after the disclosure of “reprehensible” emails led to the sacking of UK Labour peer Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.
Mr Mandelson featured in a 2003 scrapbook of 50th birthday greetings to the disgraced financier and sex offender which included a handwritten note from George Mitchell, the former US senator who brokered the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
Downing Street criticised “reprehensible” Mandelson emails to Epstein after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Mr Mandelson had offered support to Epstein, saying “I think the world of you” and that he was “furious about what has happened”.
Six years after Epstein was found dead by suicide in prison in 2019, his links with powerful political and business figures continue to cause ructions. Controversy over his friendship with Britain’s prince Andrew precipitated the prince’s withdrawal from public life several years ago.
RM Block
The Epstein birthday book was made public by a committee of the US house of representatives examining files from investigations into Epstein’s abuse of girls and women.
The book featured a suggestive note to Epstein with a hand-drawn picture of a naked woman apparently bearing the signature of future US president Donald Trump. The White House denied Mr Trump wrote the note.
Mr Mitchell, now 92, was known previously to have had some links with Epstein but denied any knowledge of his crimes.
However, new light is cast on their friendship by his inclusion in a scrapbook that also included an apparent handwritten note from former US president Bill Clinton.
Although many other contributions to the birthday book were salacious, Mr Mitchell cast his note in warm terms.
[ Democrats rekindle Trump’s Epstein problem with ‘birthday note’Opens in new window ]
“The beginning of a new year is a good time to count our blessings. Among mine is your friendship,” he wrote to Epstein in January 2003.
“During that time you’ve been a good friend. I’m grateful for that and what I hope will be many more years of your friendship.
“Among your blessings has been the opportunity to lead a full, exciting and fantastically varied life. Now that you have reached a critical milestone, I hope you will intensify your activities in the widest possible range of issues, especially in the field of science where you’ve already done so much.”
Mr Mitchell was drawn into the affair in 2020 when a 2016 deposition by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre was made public.
Ms Giuffre, a sex-trafficking victim who died in April, named Mr Mitchell among the men she was forced to have sex with by Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring to traffic minors.
[ Ghislaine Maxwell gets 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking crimesOpens in new window ]
Mr Mitchell denied meeting, speaking with or having any contact with Ms Giuffre. “The allegation contained in the released documents is false,” he told the BBC.
The Irish Times spoke with an official in Mr Mitchell’s office at law firm DLA Piper seeking his comment on the Epstein birthday book but none was provided.
Still, a representative for Mr Mitchell told the Portland Press Herald that he “stands by” prior statements on Epstein.
“During the time he knew Epstein, he had no knowledge of Epstein’s actions involving underage girls,” the representative said.
“He first learned of those actions through published reports of Epstein’s prosecution in Florida. He never had any contact with Mr Epstein again.”
