Democrats in the US House of Representatives wrote to the former UK Ambassador to the US, asking him to give evidence to the Oversight Committee as part of their probe into the dead paedophile
Peter Mandelson has been summoned to give evidence to the US Congress about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, it has emerged.
Democrats in the US House of Representatives wrote to the former UK Ambassador to the US, asking him to give evidence to the Oversight Committee as part of their probe into the dead paedophile.
It comes after the Mirror discovered images of Lord Mandelson in his underwear with a woman in a dressing gown in the latest batch of Epstein Files released by the US Department of Justice.Mandelson is now facing a criminal investigation, after the new files suggested that he may have shared market-sensitive information with Epstein a decade and a half ago.
Mandelson has not commented on the investigation.
As he is not a US citizen, Congress has no legal power to compel Mandelson to give evidence. The same committee summoned Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to appear late last year, but he did not respond to the request.
In the letter, first reported in the Telegraph, House Democrats Suhas Subramanyam and Robert Garcia say they believe Mandelson could hold “critical information” on Epstein’s co-conspirators.
“While you no longer serve as British ambassador to the United States and have stepped down from the House of Lords, it is clear that you possessed extensive social and business ties to Jeffrey Epstein and hold critical information pertaining to our investigation of Epstein’s operations,” the letter reads.
“Given the appalling allegations regarding Epstein’s conduct, we request that you make yourself available for a transcribed interview with committee staff regarding the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators.”
The letter gives Mandelson two weeks to respond.
In a statement following his sacking as Ambassador to the US last year, Lord Mandelson said: “I was wrong to believe Epstein following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered. I was never culpable or complicit in his crimes. Like everyone else I learned the actual truth about him after his death. But his victims did know what he was doing, their voices were not heard and I am sorry I was amongst those who believed him over them.”
It comes over a week after the UK Government voted to publish all material relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment in 2024, with information relating to national security and foreign relations being vetted by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).
Mandelson, 72, is facing a criminal investigation into allegations he passed market-sensitive information to billionaire predator Epstein while serving as business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government during the 2008 financial crash. No10 said the Cabinet Office had passed material to the Metropolitan Police after a review of the Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice.