Peter Mandelson has been taken into custody on “suspicion of misconduct in public office”
The Metropolitan police have arrested disgraced former UK ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, who has been under investigation over allegedly leaking sensitive government data to late financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Footage circulating online shows the ex-diplomat being escorted by detectives out of his home and driven away in an unmarked vehicle. While the arrest was corroborated by the Met, Mandelson was not explicitly named.
”Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, February 23 and has been taken to a London police station for interview,” a police spokesperson stated on Monday.
Mandelson became the target of the police probe earlier this month following the release of the latest batch of the Epstein documents by the US authorities, which suggested he had received $75,000 from the late pedophile. The peer resigned from the Labour Party and quit his position in the House of Lords amid the scandal, yet still denied any wrongdoing. Mandelson insisted that he had no recollection of ever receiving the money from Epstein.
The Mandelson affair has dealt a heavy blow to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s team. The PM’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, took the fall for appointing Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US despite his known links to Epstein. The decision was ultimately “wrong,” and the disgraced peer has “damaged our party, our country, and trust in politics itself,” McSweeney said while announcing his resignation.
McSweeney’s exit was followed by Starmer’s communications director, Tim Allan, who said he stepped down to allow the prime minister to build a “new team.”
The British royal family and Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles III, have also been hit by the new trove of Epstein documents. Already stripped stripped of his titles over his ties to the late sex offender, the ex-prince is now facing allegations of “misconduct in public office” due to allegedly supplying Epstein with sensitive documents. He was briefly arrested last week but released the same day after questioning.
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