U.S. News

New British Ambassador to U.S. Was Regular Guest of Jeffrey Epstein, Emails Show

ANDY AND MANDY?

Lord Peter Mandelson kept up contact with Jeffrey Epstein until 2012, according to new emails published in London.

Jeffrey Epstein
Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images

Newly published emails show that the incoming British ambassador to the U.S., Lord Peter Mandelson, kept in contact with Jeffrey Epstein until at least 2012—long after Epstein’s conviction on child sex offences—and stayed at his Manhattan townhouse on at least two occasions.

The emails, published in London as part of a legal case brought by a powerful former banker, also show that Prince Andrew stayed in contact with the deceased pedophile for longer than he previously claimed, sending Epstein an email saying he hoped the two could “play soon” months after he previously said contact had ceased.

The controversy will be an unwelcome distraction for Mandelson, who was forced into offering a humiliating apology for previously saying that Donald Trump was a “danger to the world” and “little short of a white nationalist.” He was dismissed as a “moron” by a key Trump ally for the remarks.

Mandelson, a close ally of former Prime Minister Tony Blair widely known by the nickname “Mandy,” has previously admitted knowing Epstein and said that he regretted being introduced to him.

The connection was first revealed when a U.S. court published a 2019 internal report by bank JP Morgan, which noted that Epstein appeared to “maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British government.”

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring an underage girl and was briefly jailed at the Palm Beach county stockade in Florida.

Incredibly, The Times of London reports, “Emails from Epstein suggested Mandelson spent the weekend at his Manhattan townhouse while he was still in jail in 2009.”

The new emails made public by the London court now definitively show that Epstein remained in contact with Mandelson until at least August 2012. They suggest that Mandelson stayed again with Epstein in New York in May 2012.

The Times said the emails were published in a filing by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), in defense of an appeal by Jes Staley, who was fined £1.8 million ($2 million) in 2023 for misleading the FCA about his relationship with Epstein.

Prince Andrew, who claimed in a disastrous BBC interview that he had ended his relationship with Epstein in December 2010, doing so in person because he was “too honorable” to do it remotely, was in fact still emailing Epstein the following year.

The Times says that a message in late February 2011 from Andrew said: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon.”

Prince Andrew no longer has a public office or press spokesperson. The U.K. Foreign Office did not respond to a Daily Beast request for comment about its new ambassador’s connection to Epstein.