Mandelson Regrets Epstein Case Failures, Defends Ties

Lord Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States, expressed regret on Sunday for the systemic failures that allowed Jeffrey Epstein's victims to go unheard, but stopped short of apologizing for his own continued friendship with the convicted sex offender after Epstein's 2008 guilty plea.

In his first broadcast interview since being dismissed from his diplomatic post last September, Mandelson appeared on BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg program. He described his association with Epstein, a financier who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, as a "terrible mistake" driven by misplaced loyalty. Mandelson insisted he had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes and would apologize for his ties only if he had been complicit. "I was not culpable, I was not knowledgeable of what he was doing," he said. He added that he believed Epstein's account at the time, which claimed he had been falsely accused in his interactions with young women.

Mandelson, a prominent Labour peer and former cabinet minister under Tony Blair, emphasized that his interactions with Epstein were limited. He stated he never witnessed anything suspicious during...