All around Europe, the political and business elite are facing an inquest on what blinded so many to think it was permissible to consort with a known sex trafficker. As the 3m emails and 1,800 photos released on Friday by the US Department of Justice start to percolate across the continent and through to national media, questions about the moral fibre of this elite are starting to be asked at markedly different levels of intensity.
Squirming businessmen, bankers, politicians, royals, academics, tech bros and partners in law firms have become entangled in Jeffrey Epstein’s interlocking circles of money, power and sex. It seems there was no one in a position of power that Epstein was not in email contact with, and that there was little limit to what this networking elite was prepared to do in return for a gift, a contact or an invite to a sexually charged party. Elon Musk was right when in July 2025 he tweeted – only to quickly delete it – that “so many powerful people want that list suppressed”.
It says something about Britain’s media and political culture that the most heated inquest under way about Epstein is not in the US, but in the UK, and the political leader that may first be required to resign is not Donald Trump, but the owlish and Pooterish Keir Starmer.
The risk in appointing Peter Mandelson to represent the UK as ambassador in the US, knowing he had been in close contact with Epstein after he had been convicted of sex offences, should have been clear, and sent warning lights flashing on any politician’s dashboard.
For Starmer, a leader who has already developed a reputation for weakness in public office, this is a grievous blow. He looks as if he was either rolled over, or lacked the necessary integrity to reject the appointment.
The more straightforward charge facing Mandelson is one that may see his career end not just in failure, but in jail. Epstein’s donations to Mandelson, and the business secretary’s supply of commercial sensitive information from the heart of government to Epstein are of interest to the Metropolitan police.
For good measure, the judgment of Starmer’s increasingly beleaguered chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, is also in question, something will delight those Labour MPs that have long disliked McSweeney for his pursuit of the Reform vote. Those on Labour’s soft left, and Britain’s hugely competitive press, have a powerful figure essential to Starmer in their sights.
By contrast, in the US, Trump, his wife and his Mar-a-Lago club are referred to 38,000 times, but the constitutional lines of accountability to control a president seem to have long gone, while the public seem inured to Trump’s moral flaws. Steve Bannon, a close Epstein friend, also seems immune to criticism. Congress did play a role in eventually forcing Trump to release the documents, but it has shown little interest in pursuing what they show, except if it might ensnare the Clintons.
The most high-profile US figure to face reprisals over his friendship with Epstein may be former treasury secretary Larry Summers. The one-time president of Harvard University stepped back from public commitments last year saying he was “deeply ashamed” after emails with Epstein showed him making sexist remarks and asking for romantic advice.
Otherwise, the gossipy fall out between the tech bros, and between Bill and Melinda Gates, has attracted the most interest. Brad Karp, the chair of Paul Weiss, one of the country’s most prominent corporate law firms, quit his post after his email exchanges with Epstein emerged.
Also do not expect a hot pursuit in the Saudi press of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Photographs show him smiling and hugging Epstein. Equally, the Emirati press is likely to have little to say about the email exchanges between Epstein and Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the head of DP World, the giant Dubai ports group.
The European country most badly affected is upright Norway, where the royal family, as in the UK, is reeling. Norway’s crown princess, Mette-Marit, has come under scrutiny after documents showed years of contact with Epstein. The unsealed files contain nearly 1,000 mentions of Mette-Marit, including numerous email exchanges between 2011 and 2014. She said in a statement issued by the royal palace: “I showed poor judgment and I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply embarrassing.” Mette-Marit married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001.
There is interest, too, in why the children of high-profile Danish diplomat couple Terje Rod-Larsen and Mona Juul were due to receive $10m in a will Epstein signed two days before he died.
Borge Brende, another former Norwegian diplomat and now in charge of the World Economic Forum, is also in hot water over 100 text messages and emails including three meetings with Epstein. The extent to which he informed the WEF board of his connections is now under review. Brende said: “I was completely unaware of Epstein’s past and criminal activities.”
In Sweden, Joanna Rubinstein, a biologist and president of Sweden for UNHCR (a fundraising foundation for the UN Refugee Agency) has resigned. She visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean with her family. “I was aware of the [2008] judgment at the time of my visit. What was subsequently revealed about the extent of the abuse is horrific, and I firmly distance myself from it,” she said.
In France, Le Monde has been investigating the links between Epstein and a smattering of French celebrities, including Jack Lang, the 84-year-old former culture minister. In his case there were loans of planes and villas, and links to an offshore company in the Virgin Islands. Lang said: “I meet a lot of people; I’m drawn to the unexpected. Jeffrey was a generous man, a pleasant businessman. He loved art, cinema.”
In every country and every language, there is an excuse.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
