Remember me
Peter Mandelson reminisced about being 'entranced' after he was first introduced to Jeffrey Epstein at the lavish holiday home of a wealthy British-American businesswoman, documents suggest.
They appear to show the disgraced ex-Labour minister discussing first meeting Epstein at the summer home of Lynn Forester de Rothschild in Martha's Vineyard, an island enclave of the super-rich in New England.
It came as officials investigating Lord Mandelson's ties to the late paedophile were told to extend their probe to cover his time in government as far back as 1999, when he was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
It would also cover his time as business secretary and de facto deputy prime minister under Gordon Brown between 2008 and 2010.
Emails suggest Lord Mandelson knew Epstein from about 1999 or 2000, with previous documents released by the US House of Representatives showing the American covering his travel bills as far back as 2003, when he was on the backbenches as MP for Hartlepool.
The peer, who denies any wrongdoing, is currently the subject of a police investigation into accusations the peer passed market-sensitive information to Epstein in the 2000s.
While material from two decades ago is unlikely to be published, it could be passed to Scotland Yard detectives by civil servants, the Times reported.
In a 2013 email exchange with Epstein's secretary Lesley Groff, published by the US Justice Department, Mandelson discusses a photograph he has been sent and asks where it was taken.
Peter Mandelson (Pictured, left) reminisced about being 'entranced' after he was first introduced to Jeffrey Epstein at the lavish holiday home of a wealthy British-American businesswoman, documents suggest
Officials investigating Lord Mandelson's ties to late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein (pictured, right) were told to extend their probe to cover his time in government as far back as 1999
Ms Groff replies that it might be Epstein's island in the US Virgin Islands and has asked the paedophile if he knows.
Mandelson then replied: 'I think it was Martha's the first time I met Jeffrey, staying with Lynn Forester'.
The email exchange took place years after Epstein had served 13 months of an 18-month prison sentence in the US for procuring a girl under 18 for prostitution.
Lynn Forester is Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the businesswoman and widow of financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, who was one of Britain's richest men before his death in 2022.
She is also believed to have introduced Sarah Ferguson, the former duchess of York, to Epstein in the 1990s.
In an earlier email exchange, from August 2010, Epstein emailed Lord Mandelson a picture titled 'the good old days'. The disgraced ex-Labour minister responded: 'The first time we met and I was entranced...'
Meanwhile, a separate email from March 2011 suggests that Lord Mandelson first met Epstein in about 1999 and was introduced by the paedophile's madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
The email shows that the chief executive of Lord Mandelson's firm, General Counsel, was preparing to tell the Press that he barely knew Epstein. Ironically, the quote was shared with the paedophile to check before it was sent.
Peter Mandelson (right) has expressed his regrets about a former friendship with the late financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein (left), who died in prison in 2019
A photograph of Lord Mandelson talking to a woman wearing a white bath robe was released as part of the Epstein files
The email states: 'Lord Mandelson was in London on 12 and 13 December 2009 prior to travelling to India on government business, and no such meeting was requested by him.
'Lord Mandelson was introduced to Mr Epstein a decade before by his then partner Ghislaine Maxwell who, along with her father and other members of her family, Lord Mandelson had known for many years before.'
The quote was prepared in response to reports that Epstein had previously applied to the courts to be released from house arrest to meet a then-unnamed British Government Minister. The court gave permission for Epstein to meet his lawyer, but not the Minister.
Emails suggest Lord Mandelson and Epstein planned to meet anyway, but had to cancel because he was 'grounded' by a mini-Budget.
This allowed Lord Mandelson to tell the Press the pair hadn't met despite Epstein applying to the courts to allow them to do just that.