Police search two properties linked to Peter Mandelson in legal probe
Police are searching Peter Mandelson’s homes as part of a probe into allegations of misconduct in public office.
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed specialist crime teams are carrying out searches of two properties in Wiltshire and North London. Mandelson himself has not been arrested.
It comes amid allegations that the former peer – who resigned from the House of Lords this week – leaked internal government information to Jeffrey Epstein after the 2008 economic crash. Mandelson has previously denied criminal wrongdoing relating to his friendship with paedophile Epstein, who died in a New York prison cell in 2019.
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Getty Images)
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart, of the Metropolitan Police, said: “I can confirm that officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime team are in the process of carrying out search warrants at two addresses, one in the Wiltshire area, and another in the Camden area.
“The searches are related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offences, involving a 72-year-old man. He has not been arrested and enquiries are ongoing.”
Two people believed to be police officers arrived outside Lord Mandelson’s house near Regent’s Park in central London on Friday afternoon. One of them appeared to be wearing a small body camera. They knocked on the door and entered the house.
At the weekend the US Department of Justice released millions of documents relating to Epstein. These included more emails between Mandelson and Epstein, including messages that suggest the then-Cabinet member leaked confidential government information to the financier after the 2008 financial crash.
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US Committee on Oversight and Government Reform)
Files released last Friday indicate Epstein was sent details of internal discussions from the heart of the UK government after the global financial crisis. Mandelson, the then-business secretary, appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby ministers over a tax on bankers’ bonuses in 2009, and to confirm an imminent bailout package for the euro the day before it was announced in 2010.
Bank statements from 2003 and 2004 appeared to show he received payments totalling 75,000 US dollars from the financier, and Epstein is also said to have paid for an osteopathy course for Mandelson’s husband. Mandelson said he had no recollection of the payments.
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