London, Feb 7: A prince, an ambassador, senior diplomats, top politicians. All brought down by the Jeffrey Epstein files. And all in Europe, rather than the United States.
The huge trove of Epstein documents released by the US Department of Justice has sent shock waves through Europe’s political, economic and social elites – dominating headlines, ending careers and spurring political and criminal investigations.
Former UK Ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson was fired and could go to prison. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a leadership crisis over the Mandelson appointment. Senior figures have fallen in Norway, Sweden and Slovakia. And, even before the latest batch of files, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of King Charles III, lost his honours, princely title and taxpayer-funded mansion.
Apart from the former Prince Andrew, none of them faces claims of sexual wrongdoing. They have been toppled for maintaining friendly relationships with Epstein after he became a convicted sex offender.
“Epstein collected powerful people the way others collect frequent flyer points,” said Mark Stephens, a specialist in international and human rights law at Howard Kennedy in London. “But the receipts are now in public, and some might wish they’d travelled less.”
The documents were published after a public frenzy over Epstein became a crisis for President Donald Trump’s administration and led to a rare bipartisan effort to force the government to open its investigative files. But in the US, the long-sought publication has not brought the same public reckoning with Epstein’s associates – at least so far.
Rob Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said that in Britain, “if you’re in those files, it’s immediately a big story.”
“It suggests to me we have a more functional media, we have a more functional accountability structure, that there is still a degree of shame in politics, in terms of people will say: ‘This is just not acceptable, this is just not done’,” he said.
European investigations
The Epstein files reveal the global network of royals, political leaders, billionaires, bankers and academics that the wealthy financier built around him.
Across Europe, officials have had or resign or face censure after the Epstein files revealed relationships that were more extensive than previously disclosed.
Joanna Rubinstein, a Swedish UN official, quit after the revelation of a 2012 visit to Epstein’s Caribbean island. Miroslav Lajcak, national security adviser to Slovakia’s prime minister, quit over his communications with Epstein, which included the pair discussing “gorgeous” girls.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have set up wide-ranging official investigations into the documents. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a team would scour the files for potential Polish victims, and any links between Epstein and Russian secret services.
Epstein took an interest in European politics, in one email exchange with billionaire Peter Thiel calling Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union “just the beginning” and part of a return to “tribalism.” Gregoire Roos, director of the Europe programme at the think tank Chatham House, said the files uncover Epstein’s “far-reaching” network of contacts in Europe, “and the level of access among not just those who were already in power, but those who were getting there. (AP)
