POLICE released former ambassador Peter Mandelson on bail early Tuesday after arresting him in an investigation into his links to Jeffrey Epstein. The development came days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was detained in a separate inquiry related to the same set of documents.
Mandelson, 72, was arrested around 1700 GMT on Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The allegations stem from the latest release of documents connected to Epstein.
“A 72-year-old man arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office has been released on bail pending further investigation,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement issued around nine hours after he was taken to an unnamed London police station.
Television images showed Mandelson being driven from his north London home with a man and a woman. Police had earlier this month searched two of his properties.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, King Charles’s younger brother, was detained on Thursday and released under investigation in a separate misconduct in public office case linked to the same documents.
Mandelson is being investigated over claims that he sent sensitive documents to Epstein while serving as a government minister, including during the 2008 financial crash. Police have not detailed which documents are under review.
He was removed by prime minister Keir Starmer from his role as envoy to Washington in September after an earlier release of Epstein-linked documents revealed the extent of their friendship.
The appointment had triggered political controversy, with two of Starmer’s senior aides resigning. Starmer apologised to Epstein’s victims for appointing Mandelson and accused the former envoy of lying about the extent of his ties to the financier during the vetting process.
Under the subheading “Pressure rising”, law firm Mishcon de Reya, representing Mandelson, said earlier this month that he “regrets, and will regret until his dying day, that he believed Epstein's lies about his criminality”.
“Lord Mandelson did not discover the truth about Epstein until after his death in 2019,” the statement said.
“He is profoundly sorry that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved.”
The government plans to release tens of thousands of emails, messages and documents relating to Mandelson’s vetting process. Government minister Darren Jones said on Monday that the first set of documents will be published in early March.
Starmer faced calls to resign earlier this month after acknowledging that he knew about Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with Epstein, which appeared to continue after Epstein was convicted of child prostitution in 2008.
Mandelson, a former European Union trade commissioner, stepped down from the House of Lords earlier this month.
Global Counsel, the advisory firm he co-founded, approached bankruptcy last week after ceasing trading and appointing administrators in an attempt to salvage assets.
Several major clients, including Barclays, Tesco and the Premier League, have ended their relationships with the firm in recent weeks, according to reports.
Earlier this month, officers from the Metropolitan Police’s specialist crime team searched two addresses linked to Mandelson, one in Wiltshire and another in London, police said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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