Topline
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington on Thursday following the release of more than 100 emails that show Mandelson offering sympathy, encouragement and even strategic advice to the disgraced financier even after his 2006 arrest and 2008 jailing for soliciting sex from a minor.
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 08: Peter Mandelson, former British Ambassador to the United States during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on May 2025 in Washington, DC.
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Key Facts
Bloomberg obtained more than 100 previously unreported emails between Mandelson and Epstein from 2005 to 2010, showing the relationship was deeper than previously known.
From the moment the first allegations against Epstein became public in 2006, Mandelson encouraged Epstein to adopt tactics from Sun Tzu’s Art of War in fighting prosecutors, repeatedly stressing “strategy, strategy, strategy.”
Even after Palm Beach police detailed Epstein’s involvement with a 14-year-old victim in 2006, Mandelson assured Epstein he was “here whenever you need.”
In June 2008, the day before Epstein was admitted to a Florida jail to begin serving time for soliciting sex from a minor, Mandelson wrote he felt “hopeless and furious” at the allegations, telling Epstein to “be philosophical” and to “show the world how strong you are” before signing off, saying: “your friends stay with you and love you.”
In the emails—which also included personal exchanges, from Mandelson arranging to send Epstein a book to Epstein offering to cover his travel costs to Epstein’s Caribbean island—Epstein told Mandelson prosecutors had “very bad info,” and he had passed a polygraph and “of course passed with flying colrs [sic].”
Crucial Quote
On the Harry Cole Saves The West podcast this week, Mandelson described the published correspondences as “embarrassing,” conceded he “regrets carrying on that association for far too long,” and laments he took Epstein’s lies “at face value.” Branding the Epstein-saga as an “albatross around his neck.”
Key Background
Mandelson, 71, rose to prominence in the mid-to-late 1990s as a chief architect of Tony Blair’s New Labour project and went on to hold a string of senior political roles. He served as European Commissioner for Trade from 2004 to 2008, the period when he first connected with Epstein. By June 2009, Epstein boasted in emails to JP Morgan senior executive Jes Stanley about Mandelson’s influence, as Mandelson had been named to the House of Lords, and was serving as UK’s business secretary. In late 2010, he co-founded a public policy advisory firm, Global Counsel. Over the next 14 years, the firm developed a blue-chip client base advising some of the world’s largest companies on the regulatory and political environment. In December 2024, he was nominated as the UK’s ambassador to the U.S. On Trump, Mandelson told the Times in July: “Look, he’s not only a unique politician–he’s also going to be one of the most consequential presidents in American history.” He continued: “He has this sense of history, this grasp of power which I think perhaps recent inhabitants of the White House haven’t quite seen.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinacastellanos/2025/09/11/uk-ambassador-to-us-peter-mandelson-ousted-over-epstein-ties/
