You are correct; we are. I only put stuff that opens (for me). It’s Bloomberg and normally it doesn’t but this did.
Here is the text - sorry you can’t open it. It happens to me too (usually on NYT).
UK police arrested Labour Party grandee Peter Mandelson on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed they arrested a 72-year-old man in Camden on Monday who was then taken to a London police station for interview. “This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas,” a police spokesperson said. They didn’t name Mandelson, 72.
The arrest comes after emails released in late January by the US Department of Justice allegedly showed Mandelson disclosed potentially market-sensitive information to the late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein while serving as a UK government minister. The police began a criminal probe into the matter earlier this month, searching two properties linked to Mandelson.
A lawyer for Mandelson declined to comment.
The arrest deepens the crisis that’s engulfed Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his decision in late 2024 to appoint Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US, despite his known links to Epstein. In the wake of fresh revelations about the former envoy, the premier’s chief of staff, communications chief and cabinet secretary all quit their posts, while some Labour MPs have publicly called for Starmer himself to go.
The prime minister had brought back Mandelson — who had extensive experience in trade — to help manage US ties after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his ensuing tariff war. Starmer then fired him in September after a Bloomberg News investigation revealed the depths of his ties to Epstein, but has nevertheless faced intensified criticism over his judgment in hiring Mandelson the first place.
In the House of Commons on Feb. 4, Starmer was forced to concede that Mandelson’s long-term relationship with Epstein had been mentioned during the vetting procedure that preceded his appointment as US envoy.
The FBI interviewed a woman four times, who said Trump raped her when she was a child. In other words, they took her seriously. She refused, however, to cooperate with a prosecution.
I legitimately don’t know whether Trump was ever involved in pedophilia, whether Epstein-related or not.
But the hamhanded desperation the DoJ is engaging in to keep allegations of Trump’s pedophilia from being publicly available leads me to think that someone at the DoJ is weirdly worried that he was, and that’s a remarkworthy datapoint.
The first is that Trump has yet to threaten to sue anyone who claims he’s in the files doing something slimey. Suing is his love language and he has a team of shopping center and parking garage lawyers ready to do his bidding. But once he sues- comes discovery. And for whatever reason, his legal team has gotten him to see that suing, opening up redacted files, being deposed, etc. is not the way to go here. So this is totally out of character for him- a guy who generally doesn’t listen to his lawyers.
The second is that Susie Wiles (by all accounts, a competent and shrewd politico, whether you consider her evil or not- nobody questions her competency here) has not prevailed upon EVERYONE that it’s never the crime, it’s always the coverup. Or reminded Pam Bondi that Nixon didn’t go to jail- his AG did. Etc.
So the frantic covering up with a different excuse (files are on my desk, there are no files, we’ve released everything- ooopsie, another million more documents, bomb a fishing boat in the Caribbean, show up at a hearing and demonstrate the utmost contempt for the victims by claiming the Dow is what really matters… etc.) strikes me as not Susie’s “brand”. You’d think she’d have encouraged a two day news cycle- here it is folks– and then moving on.
I am pretty certain all the files, including those implicating Trump, will eventually come out. Too many people – including politicians and journalists – want them to, and the public will not/cannot be distracted.
New news: Larry Summers has resigned from Harvard (Chronicle of Higher Education, paywalled) effective the end of this academic year in response to revelations about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
The article is paywalled, but according to it he’d been on leave since November while Harvard reviewed the revelation that his ties to Epstein had continued after the latter’s conviction, and this will technically be a retirement and not a firing, but by all appearances it’s a resignation under pressure. In addition, the Harvard Crimson reports that as part of the resignation Summers is giving up his University Professorship, though it’s not 100% clear if that’s normal for a retirement or not. (Different universities treat those sorts of distinctions differently.) Also, as part of his resignation, he also stepped down as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School, which is a title he apparently could have retained even after retiring.
Yes, small slaps on the wrist are better than NOTHING, but really they are not having to really FEEL the consequences of the terrible choices they made for so many years!