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FORMER TAOISEACH BERTIE Ahern has said it is “not clear to me” what George Mitchell is being accused of over his appearance in the Epstein files.
It comes after two organisations cut ties with Mitchell, a former United States senator who chaired talks during negotiations of the Good Friday Agreement, following the latest release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein by the US Department of Justice.
The files appeared to show that Mitchell and Epstein corresponded via email between 2010 and 2013. This came after Epstein’s conviction in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Some of these emails also appeared to suggest that attempts were made to arrange a meeting between the two. The documents do not confirm if such a meeting took place.
Being named in the Epstein files is not an indication of wrongdoing, and many of those identified in the files have denied any wrongdoing.
Queen’s University Belfast has said it will cut ties with Mitchell and removed a bust of him from its campus, while the US-Ireland Alliance removed Mitchell’s name from its scholarship programme.
A spokesperson for Mitchell has said he “profoundly regrets ever having known Jeffrey Epstein and condemns, without reservation, the horrific harm Epstein inflicted on so many women”.
The 92-year-old has also previously said that he had no contact with Epstein since his first conviction in 2008.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Bertie Ahern said he has known Mitchell for “the best part of 30 years”, having worked together during the peace process, and that he “looked at this as close as I could the other day”.
“I don’t see what he has done,” the former Fianna Fáil leader said.
“There’s a few emails, which it’s unclear whether they were coming from him, or they were coming from Epstein, so that’s not clear.”
Ahern said he has not “been across five million documents, so I don’t know” what information is in all of them, referring to the number of files that have so far been made public about Epstein.
“All that I can say is that it looks as if Epstein met half the world, and he was trying to interact with half the world. And, you know, if George Mitchell had a few emails back and forward, God knows what they were about.”
He continued: “I don’t see what George Mitchell is being accused of. It’s not clear to me what he’s been accused of.”
He said Mitchell’s position is that he didn’t have any contact with Epstein after his 2008 conviction, which is “what’s at issue now”.
I can’t assume that George Mitchell had contact with him after 2008. I just don’t know. If he did, he shouldn’t have, but it’s not clear.
Ahern was also asked about the revelations about former British MP Peter Mandelson, who is now being investigated by the police after being accused of leaking sensitive information to Epstein while he was in government after the global financial crisis.
Mandelson, Britain’s then-business secretary, appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby ministers over a tax on bankers’ bonuses in 2009, and to confirm an imminent bailout package for the euro the day before it was announced in 2010.
Pressure is now mounting on UK prime minister Keir Starmer from his own MPs over his decision to approve the appointment of Mandelson to the role of British ambassador to Washington despite knowing about his links to Epstein.
“Giving away any information to third parties, giving any information outside of the jurisdiction, giving it to somebody with Epstein’s record, I mean it’s almost unbelievable,” Ahern said.
He said it is “fairly extraordinary” for Starmer to have appointed Mandelson to the role when he “knew his track record”.
“His track record is extraordinary. He’s been fired more times than most people would in two lifetimes.”
Ahern, who also worked with Mandelson during Good Friday Agreement negotiations, has previously said that the peace process would have progressed faster had he not taken over from Mo Mowlam as Northern Ireland secretary. He wrote in his autobiography that Mandelson “was a bit too smooth for our liking” and that they “never really hit it off”.
“To be at my most polite, Mandelson was a tricky guy to deal with. You really had to check everything and double check everything,” he told Anton Savage this morning.
“I dealt with several secretaries of state, most of them straightforward, most of them upfront, most of them would give you the line fairly straight. But I’m afraid Mandelson wasn’t that kind of an individual,” he said, adding that he didn’t trust him.
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