LONDON — British police on Friday searched two properties linked to ex-ambassador Peter Mandelson as part of a probe into potential misconduct stemming from his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart said 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 offenses, involving a 72-year-old man.”
Mandelson, 72, has homes in Wiltshire in Western England and the Camden area of London.
Two people believed to be police officers were seen entering Mandelson’s London home near Regents Park on Friday afternoon.
The former Cabinet minister, ambassador and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party is being investigated for potential misconduct in public office over documents, part of a trove of Epstein files released in the United States, suggesting he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago.
In 2009, Mandelson, then the U.K. government’s business secretary, sent Epstein an internal government report discussing ways the U.K. could raise money after the 2008 global financial crisis, including by selling off government assets. The following year he appeared to tip Epstein off about an imminent 500-billion-euro deal to prop up the European single currency.
Mandelson has not been arrested or charged.
Misconduct in public office carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who fired Mandelson from his ambassadorial job over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties, is facing a political storm over his decision in 2024 to appoint him to Britain’s most important diplomatic post.
Starmer’s government has promised to release emails and other documentation related to Mandelson’s appointment, which it says will show that Mandelson misled officials.
Starmer apologized Thursday to Epstein’s victims.
“I am sorry, sorry for what was done to you, sorry that so many people with power failed you,” Starmer said. “Sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him.”
Lawless writes for the Associated Press.
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