PETER Mandelson coached “best pal” Jeffrey Epstein through his “years of torture” over teen sex allegations, leaked emails suggest.
While the predator was facing charges in June 2008 over soliciting a minor, Lord Mandelson wrote: “Your friends stay with you and love you.”
APEpstein died in prison in New York in 2019[/caption]
Peter Mandelson has confessed to carrying on his friendship with Epstein for ‘far too long’House Oversight Committee
YouTube/Harry Cole Saves the WestUnder fire Lord Mandelson made his startling apology to Harry Cole[/caption]
Shortly before Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in jail after a plea deal with Florida prosecutors, Lord Mandelson added: “Fight for early release.”
Watch Harry Cole Saves The West on our YouTube channel here
The revelation comes just hours after the under-fire British Ambassador warned fresh embarrassing correspondence with his former friend were set to emerge as he issued a grovelling apology for remaining close with the disgraced banker for years after his sex convictions.
Despite the growing row over Lord Mandelson’s links with the late financier, Sir Keir Starmer gave his full backing to the embattled diplomat at PMQs today.
The PM insisted “due process was followed” during the appointment of the Labour grandee to the key role amid growing calls for him to be sacked.
In a string of leaked messages circulating Washington DC, Mr Mandelson wrote: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.
“I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain. You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.”
The email sent between the pair’s private email addresses, continued: “Everything can be turned into an opportunity and that you will come through it and be stronger for it.
“The whole thing has been years of torture and now you have to show the world how big a person you are, and how strong.”
A separate email showed Mr Mandelson offering strategic advice, quoting ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu.
He said: “Reminder. You are fighting back so you need strategy, strategy, strategy. Remember the Art of War.”
Lord Mandelson did not dispute the veracity of the messages, but reiterated his apology first given in a bombshell interview on Harry Cole Saves the West.
Battling a growing backlash over his links to the disgraced banker, who died in a New York jail in 2019, Lord Mandelson said: “I hope that I’m doing a good enough job as Ambassador here in the United States to continue.”
But he admitted for the first time to remaining close to Epstein “for far longer than I should have done”.
Britain’s top man in Washington branded it an “albatross around his neck” as he pleaded his “deep regret” at remaining in contact for “many years” with the paedophile financier even after was convicted for underage sex crimes in 2008.
And remarkably he suggested that because he is gay he may have seen a different side to the predator who died in a New York jail in 2019 under a cloud of sex trafficking allegations involving teenage girls.
The bombshell interview came after the UK’s most senior diplomat in America was revealed to have sent the late banker a gushing 10-page letter in 2003 where he declared his love for his “best pal”.
Speaking exclusively to Harry Cole, the Labour grandee insisted: “I feel a tremendous sense, a profound sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffer as a result of his behavior and his illegal criminal activities.
“And secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed, carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done,” he added.
Arguing he had been “conned”, Lord Mandelson said: “I regret very much that I fell for his lies, I fell for and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case in Florida, like very many people, I took at face value what he said with hindsight, with fresh information, many years later, we realised that we had been wrong to believe in is a charismatic criminal liar.”
Battling to save his job following the humiliating revelations, Lord Mandelson pleaded that he had never seen any “wrongdoing” throughout his long friendship with Epstein, including trips on his private jet and stays on his infamous Caribbean crime scene.
He suggested that “perhaps it is because I am a gay man” that he was blindsided to the predator’s actions.
Lord Mandelson told the show: “All the time I was an associate of his, I never saw the wrongdoing.
“I never saw any evidence of criminal activity. I never sought and nor did he offer any introductions to women in the way that allegedly he did for others.
“Perhaps it’s because I’m a gay man, perhaps when I knew him in all those years, perhaps when I was associated with him those years ago, as I did with my then partner and now husband, we never, ever saw any evidence or sign of this activity, which has since come to light.”
UnpixsPeter Mandelson, left, tries on a belt during a shopping trip with Jeffrey Epstein in St Barts[/caption]
Britain’s top man in Washington spoke to Harry Cole in an exclusive chat Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
