While Maxwell remains silent, the Epstein documents continue to cause a stir worldwide

Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate of billionaire and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019, as expected refused to answer questions during a hearing in the US House of Representatives on Monday. That report American media, including The New York Times.

Maxwell was sentenced to twenty years in prison in 2022 for luring, transporting and trafficking underage girls for sexual abuse by and with Epstein. Now that he is no longer alive, she is the one who knows best how far his network reached. This Monday she spoke via a private video connection to the committee dealing with the Epstein case.

Maxwell’s refusal to answer questions came as no surprise. Prior to the conversation, her lawyers had already announced that the convicted child trafficker would invoke her right to remain silent unless US President Donald Trump pardoned her.

Starmer under pressure

Meanwhile, the contents of the Epstein documents continue to cause a stir worldwide. At the end of January, the US government released another three million (some of it blackened) files. Since then eisen in the United States, both Democrats and Republicans, the resignation of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. He claimed to have had no contact with Epstein since 2005, but from the released documents it turns out that Lutnick planned another visit to Epstein’s infamous island of Little Saint James in 2012.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is now under fire for his appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US in 2024. This while Starmer’s employees already knew at that time about Mandelson’s ties with Epstein. On Sunday, Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney resigned over the affair; On Monday, his head of communications Tim Allan also resigned.

However, Anas Sarwar, the leader of the Labor Party in Scotland, was not satisfied with that. In one address Sarwar Starmer called on Monday to take a step back as ultimately responsible for Mandelson’s appointment.

However, Starmer does not seem to have any plans to do so for the time being. According to the British newspaper The Guardian Starmer said at a meeting on Monday evening of his Labor Party to be ‘unwilling’ to give up his ‘mandate and responsibility to the country’. Earlier that day, members of Starmer’s cabinet, including Health Minister Wes Streeting and former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, expressed their support for their Prime Minister.

The fallen Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, does not have to count on such support from his loved ones. On Monday, British police announced that they were investigating the former prince because he, as trade envoy of the United Kingdom, allegedly shared confidential reports with Epstein.

The British King Charles then removed his hands from his brother. A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Monday that the royal couple is willing to support the police in their investigation, writes the BBC.

Ambassador’s raid

The contents of the latest Epstein documents are also causing a stir in other European countries. In France, former minister Jack Lang announced on Saturday that he would resign as chairman of the prestigious Institut du monde arabe (IMA) in Paris. Long has held sway since 2013, but he and his daughter appear to have maintained close financial ties with Epstein.

For a similar reason, police in Norway raided the home of top diplomat Mona Juul and her husband Terje Rød-Larsen. That couple played a major role behind the scenes in the early 1990s in the realization of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but they also appear to have maintained warm ties with the billionaire for years.

For example, Epstein is said to have blackmailed a Norwegian ship owner into selling an apartment to the couple for half its market value, writes the Norwegian broadcaster NRK. Also would Rød-Larsen, as chairman of the prestigious International Peace Institute (IPI), helped arrange visas for young women who later said they had been abused by Epstein.

As a result of the revelations, Juul stepped down on Sunday as Norway’s ambassador to Jordan and Iraq. Her husband had already resigned from his post at the IPI in 2022.

The two are not the only prominent Norwegians under fire for their ties to the convicted child molester. Crown Princess Mette-Marit and former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland have also recently come under controversy for the same reason.

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