The Jeffrey Epstein scandal keeps growing and evolving with every passing day. After a significant fallout that connected various influential figures to the late convicted sex offender via birthday wishes, the British ambassador to the US has now lost his job.
Jeffrey Epstein’s dotted history with the law is vast. As far back as 2004, Palm Beach police were being alerted about young girls going in and out of his Florida home. Not long after, he was arrested in a bust that even involved the FBI, which revealed he was paying several girls to engage in sex with him, some reportedly under the age of 18.
He was handed a sweetheart deal by prosecutors and later released. You’d think this would completely ruin his reputation, but even after that incident, he remained connected to powerful figures such as Prince Andrew and Bill Gates. Everyone who had ever met him still insists they never knew what he was up to behind closed doors, despite his conviction being a matter of public record.
Considering Donald Trump’s once close relationship with Epstein and his insistence that people should move on from the story, it seemed the scandal had gone quiet for a while. However, the Wall Street Journal blew the case wide open when it released birthday wishes implicating a very denialist Trump and many other influential figures, including the British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson.
NBC reports that Ambassador Mandelson was hired not for his vast political experience but for his Washington, D.C., connections. So when it was revealed he had sent a birthday wish calling the late convicted sex offender his “best pal,” questions quickly arose about whether he would be fired over his curious relationship with Epstein.
Initially, Mandelson claimed he had taken Epstein’s lies at “face value” and expressed deep regret about their relationship. But it didn’t take long before emails between him and Epstein surfaced. According to NDTV, he had numerous exchanges with Epstein over the years. The one he simply could not explain away came after Epstein’s sex crime conviction, when he wrote: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened. I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.”
With immediate effect after the release of the emails, Britain’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement: “In light of the additional information in emails written by Peter Mandelson, the prime minister has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw him as ambassador.”
The Foreign Ministry emphasized that at the time of Mandelson’s appointment, they had no knowledge of the extent of his relationship with Epstein. The UK has been consistent in its zero-tolerance approach toward anyone implicated in Epstein’s wider network. Even Prince Andrew was forced to resign from his public roles after his unclear relationship with Epstein became public.
Mandelson’s heavy correspondence with Epstein ran from 2005 to 2010, and in one email he even asked the late New York financier if he could visit his infamous Caribbean island. Epstein eventually accepted the request and invited him there in December 2005, even offering to pay for his tickets.
