LONDON (AP) — Police in Britain mentioned Peter Mandelson, the previous U.Ok. ambassador to america, has been launched on bail after he was arrested in a misconduct probe stemming from his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein. It got here days after a friendship with Epstein landed the previous Prince Andrew in police custody.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson mentioned in a press release issued simply after 2 a.m. Tuesday: “A 72-year-old man arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public workplace has been launched on bail pending additional investigation.
The person was not named, in line with British police observe, however the suspect within the case beforehand was recognized as the previous diplomat, who’s 72. Mandelson was filmed being led from his London residence to a automobile by plainclothes officers on Monday afternoon.
Each Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the previous Prince Andrew, are suspected of improperly passing U.Ok. authorities info to the disgraced U.S. financier, and the high-profile British arrests are a few of the most dramatic fallout from the trove of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related paperwork launched final month by the U.S. Justice Division.
JUSTIN TALLIS by way of Getty Photographs
Claims Of Leaked Authorities Info
Police are investigating Mandelson over claims he handed delicate authorities info to Epstein a decade and a half in the past. He doesn’t face allegations of sexual misconduct.
His arrest got here 4 days after Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in a separate case on suspicion of an analogous offense associated to his friendship with Epstein. He was launched after 11 hours in custody whereas the police investigation continues.
Mandelson served in senior authorities roles underneath earlier Labour governments and was U.Ok. ambassador to Washington till Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired him in September after emails had been printed displaying that he maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for intercourse offenses involving a minor.
The information launched in January contained extra explosive revelations about Mandelson’s ties to Epstein, whom he as soon as known as “my greatest pal.”
Messages recommend that Mandelson handed on delicate — and probably market-moving — authorities info to Epstein in 2009, when Mandelson was a senior minister within the British authorities. That features an inside authorities report discussing methods the U.Ok. may elevate cash after the 2008 international monetary disaster, together with by promoting off authorities property. Mandelson additionally seems to have instructed Epstein he would foyer different members of the federal government to cut back a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
British police launched a felony probe earlier this month and searched Mandelson’s two houses in London and western England.
The decision to appoint Mandelson nearly cost Starmer his job earlier this month, as questions swirled round his judgment about somebody who has flirted with controversy throughout a decades-long political profession.
Although he acknowledged he made a mistake and apologized to victims of Epstein, Starmer’s position remains precarious. His future could relaxation on the discharge of information linked to Mandelson’s appointment. The federal government has pledged to start releasing these paperwork in early March, although the timeline could also be difficult by his arrest.
Mandelson A Contentious Determine
Mandelson has been a significant, if contentious, determine within the center-left Labour Celebration for many years. He’s a talented — critics say ruthless — political operator whose mastery of political intrigue earned him the nickname “Prince of Darkness.”
The grandson of former Labour Cupboard minister Herbert Morrison, he was an architect of the social gathering’s return to energy in 1997 as centrist, modernizing “New Labour” underneath Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mandelson served in senior authorities posts underneath Blair between 1997 and 2001, and underneath Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010. In between, he was the European Union’s commerce commissioner. Brown has been notably angered by the revelations and has been serving to police with their inquiries.
Mandelson twice needed to resign from authorities throughout the Blair administration over allegations of economic or moral impropriety, acknowledging errors however denying wrongdoing.
He later returned to authorities and was again on the political entrance line when Starmer named him ambassador to Washington in the beginning of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second time period. Mandelson’s commerce experience and luxury across the ultra-rich had been thought-about main property. He helped safe a commerce deal in Could that spared Britain a few of the tariffs Trump has imposed on nations all over the world.
Evan Vucci by way of Related Press
The standing of the deal is now up within the air after Trump introduced a brand new set of world tariffs within the wake of a U.S. Supreme Courtroom determination quashing his earlier import tax order.
Earlier this month Mandelson resigned from the Home of Lords, Parliament’s higher chamber, to which he was appointed for all times in 2008. However he nonetheless has the title — Lord Mandelson — that went with it.
