Police in London have arrested former British ambassador to the US, former member of the House of Lords and Labour Party figure Peter Mandelson.
“Officers arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was taken to a London police station for questioning. This followed search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas,” said a statement from the police, who did not specify the name of the detainee, but according to media reports, it is Peter Mandelson.
The arrest comes days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of King Charles III, was detained on 19 February and released after being questioned as part of a separate investigation into misconduct in public office related to Epstein’s latest documents.
Earlier in February, it was reported that a special co-ordination team had been set up to investigate new allegations against senior Britons who appear in the published documents in the Epstein case.
London police have not confirmed details of the alleged offence for which Mandelson was arrested.
The former U.S. ambassador has not publicly commented on the Epstein cases in recent weeks.
In September, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer removed Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the United States following the publication of his correspondence with convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein, in which Mandelson advised Epstein to seek early release from prison.
The pressure on Mandelson intensified when it was revealed that he advised Epstein in 2008 to fight for early release while he was serving an 18-month sentence on charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution and paying a prostitute. Mandelson’s emails to Epstein were published by The Sun newspaper after they began circulating in Washington.
In a June 2008 email, which his spokesman did not deny, Mandelson wrote to Epstein: “I appreciate you very much and feel helpless and angry about what happened. I can still barely comprehend it. This simply could not have happened in the UK. You need to be incredibly resilient, fight for parole and be philosophical about what’s happening.”
Mandelson admitted that “even more embarrassing” details of his friendship with Epstein could soon emerge, while insisting he had never witnessed any wrongdoing by the financier.
The friendship between Mandelson and Epstein came back into the public spotlight after Democratic members of the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee made public the contents of Epstein’s “fiftieth anniversary book,” in which Mandelson referred to him as “my best friend” in a handwritten note.
Epstein was charged with sex trafficking. He, according to investigators, obtained favours from minors and “loaned” them to influential people. Epstein was arrested in 2019, and a month later he committed suicide in his cell.
In Britain, police arrested a former ambassador to the US