Peter Mandelson, UK ambassador to the US, senior adviser to Keir Starmer and former Blair minister, called convicted paedophile and likely Israeli ‘honeytrap’ agent Jeffrey Epstein his “best pal”, according to a letter in new files released by US Democrats from the Congress ‘House Oversight Committee’ collection.

Mandelson: Epstein is my ‘best pal’

In a message to Epstein for his fiftieth birthday in 2003, Mandelson called him an “intelligent, sharp-witted man” who had “parachuted” into his life. The existence of the letter had already been reported in the US press during the summer, but has been confirmed by the latest HOC release, along with images of other notes and occasions, including Mandelson commenting “yum yum” in a note about Epstein’s “glorious homes” – accompanied by a picture of Epstein’s island where many of his and his cohort’s crimes took place:

Mandelson has long claimed that is “very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein”, but the notes appear to make clear that this regret was not a feature of their relationship at the time – nor, apparently, a year after Epstein’s first paedophilia connection, when Mandelson contacted him for advice about a job applicant. Mandelson later denied ever having any ‘business dealings’ with Epstein.

In the ‘birthday book’ from which the notes were taken, compiled by Epstein’s then-girlfriend and fellow convicted child-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell three years before allegations of sex abuse by Epstein first broke, Mandelson wrote about his feelings for Epstein that he

would spend many hours just waiting for him to turn up. And often, no sooner were you getting used to having him around, you would suddenly be alone… again, leaving you with some ‘interesting’ friends to entertain instead… But wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal! Happy Birthday, Jeffrey. We love you!

The newly-public documents also include a note with a drawing of a woman’s body allegedly signed by US President Donald Trump. The White House has claimed it is fake, saying Trump “did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it”.

Meanwhile…

An internal report by the JP Morgan bank alleges that Epstein had a “particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British government”.

Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial. The US government insists he died by suicide, but footage recently released by the Trump administration that it claimed was the unedited ‘raw’ security video proving no one entered his cell at the time of his death, had missing sections in the timestamp; it even showed a mouse pointer moving around that made it clear the footage had been edited and recompiled, with at least some of it recorded from a screen during the editing process.

Featured image via the Canary