Epstein paid for Mandelson’s journey in 2003, paperwork present

Jeffrey Epstein paid for Lord Mandelson’s journey on two separate events in 2003 totalling greater than $7,400 (£5,400), in response to paperwork launched by the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee.

Mandelson was sacked because the UK’s ambassador to the US on Thursday over his hyperlinks to the late convicted paedophile.

The authorities mentioned the “depth and extent” of Mandelson’s relationship with the financier had not been identified when he was appointed final yr.

This is the primary time monetary proof of Epstein paying for Mandelson’s journey has come to gentle. The BBC has contacted Mandelson for a response.

Just months after Mandelson contributed a 10-page notice to Epstein’s 2003 “50th birthday book”, in which he referred to Epstein as his “best pal”, Epstein paid for Mandelson’s journey.

It is unclear the place and when Mandelson’s journey befell.

The first journey fee by Epstein is dated 4 April 2003 – earlier than he was convicted in 2008 – and price $3,844.90.

Every week later, Epstein paid an extra $3,642.06.

The journey receipts have been amongst greater than the 33,000 Epstein-related information launched earlier this month by the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee, offered by the Department of Justice.

The paperwork present Epstein’s monetary account with a New York journey agent, Shoppers Travel Inc, which was utilized by Epstein to ebook business flights for his associates and staff.

Victims additionally allege to have been flown commercially by Epstein on this means.

In emails from October 2005, reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, Mandelson is claimed to have complained to Epstein a few lack of British Airways airmiles and Epstein supplied to pay for his Caribbean flight.

Mandelson is reported to have informed Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly earlier than he was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

The Labour peer and former cupboard minister additionally informed Epstein “I think the world of you”, the day earlier than he started his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.

Mandelson doesn’t deny these emails.

In a earlier assertion to the BBC he mentioned: “I relied on assurances of [Epstein’s] innocence that turned out later to be horrendously false.”

In a letter Mandelson wrote to workers on the British embassy in Washington after being sacked, he mentioned he “deeply regrets” the circumstances round his departure and continues “to feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein 20 years ago and the plight of his victims”.

Epstein was convicted in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an individual underneath the age of 18 in 2008. He died in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on sex-trafficking prices.