A former Norwegian prime minister, top diplomats and the current Norwegian head of the World Economic Forum have joined Crown Princess Mette-Marit in trying to defend and explain themselves this week. That’s not easy, following the release of their own email correspondence with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
What they thought was private correspondence with Epstein before he committed suicide in prison in 2019 has become painfully public, after the US Department of Justice released another huge batch of his emails and letters late last week. Their own earlier versions of their relationships with Epstein suddenly appear very different from what their emails reveal.
By Tuesday midday, fully 76 percent of Norwegians had lost confidence in the woman who’s supposed to be their future queen. Crown Princess Mette-Marit has already admitted to being “embarrassed” by what her emails with Epstein reveal. She had earlier downplayed their relationship, while new batches published by Norwegian media on Monday and Tuesday show how close they really were over a period of at least three years, from 2011 to 2014. She also complained to Epstein in some of her mails about having to attend “boring” parties or meetings in Norway, spent much of an earlier controversial family holiday in the Caribbean corresponding with Epstein and even left her family to fly back to Norway without her, while she traveled on to Epstein’s lavish home in Palm Beach, Florida for “meditation” sessions.
Now fully 44 percent of Norwegians questioned by research firm Norstat for state broadcaster NRK and newspaper Dagbladet don’t think Crown Princess Mette-Marit should become their queen. Only 22 percent think she’s capable of being queen while 35 percent were uncertain. The poor results come also as Mette-Marit’s son from an earlier relationship before she met Crown Prince Haakon was going on trial in Oslo this week on 38 counts of criminal offenses including rape, violence, vandalism, drug transport and reckless driving.
Meanwhile, one of Norway’s most prominent politicians in recent decades is also fending off revelations in the Epstein files about his own relations with the late financier and sex offender. Thorbjørn Jagland has served as Norway’s foreign minister, prime minister, president of the Norwegian Parliament, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and, until recently, leader of the Council of Europe. Now he risks corruption charges over his dealings with Epstein, as do two of his former colleagues and Norway’s most prominent diplomats, Terje Rød Larsen and Mona Juul.
Kjetil B Alstadheim, political commentator in Norway’s largest newspaper Aftenposten, wrote this week that Jagland’s fall from grace “is of unusual dimensions.” Jagland had also downplayed his ties to Epstein, referring to them as “standard diplomatic activity.” When questions tied to Epstein began rising after his death in 2019, Jagland had told his successor as leader of the Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, that he had none. That was not true, and she now has accused Jagland of violating her confidence.
Jagland’s own email correspondence with Epstein reveals meetings, dinners and even a holiday together, including a visit to Epstein’s home in Palm Beach with Jagland’s family. They’d also been invited to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, and Epstein even arranged a doctor’s appointment for Jagland.
Now Jagland has engaged a defense attorney to handle all the questions pouring in. He warned on Tuesday that it will take a few weeks before his “team” can get through all the material now available from the US Department of Justice. Jagland told NRK that he will “come with a clarification and it must be thorough.” He also now agrees with current Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre that he has shown “poor judgment” in his dealings with Epstein, while stressing that none of the contact had anything to do with Epstein’s “private life” and exploitation of young girls.
Prime Minister Støre was also upset over revelations in the Epstein files that two of his own former colleagues in the foreign ministry, Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul, also have had far more extensive ties to Epstein than they’d ever revealed. Their ties are also of a financial nature, coming to light first back in 2019 when newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported on loans granted by Epstein to Rød-Larsen’s International Peace Institute at the time.
Now Rød-Larsen is mentioned in many of the documents released by the US, allegedly had other financial dealings with Epstein and actually visited Epstein’s private island along with his diplomat wife Mona Juul and their two children. Documents also indicate that Epstein willed as much as NOK USD 5 million to each of their children shortly before he died in prison in 2019.
Both Rød-Larsen and Juul, Norway’s former ambassador to the UN, have claimed they regret their ties to Epstein after Juul initially dismissed them as “minimal.” Now she admits she was “not precise” enough in her description of their association with Epstein.
The couple won international fame for their attempts to bring peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians in the 1980s and 1990s, and played a key role in the so-called “Oslo Agreement” that ended up collapsing. Juul later became Norway’s ambassador to the UK and then the UN, and most recently has been ambassador to both Jordan and Iraq. On Monday she was stripped of her duties by the foreign ministry pending an investigation into “her knowledge of and contact with Epstein,” according to Norway’s current Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
Juul still insists that most of her contact with Epstein was tied to her husband’s relations with him. In a statement to news bureau NTB, Juul still says she “has not had any independent social or professional relation to Epstein,” and was never taken part in his network of contacts. “I see now that I should have been much more careful, also regarding a short private visit (to Epstein’s island) in 2011, when I was on leave from the foreign ministry.”
Another former Norwegian foreign minister, Børge Brende, was also regretting his contact with Epstein after his name and even a photo popped up in the Epstein files. Brende, who currently leads the World Economic Forum in Davos, is now known to have met Epstein over dinners in New York and corresponded with Epstein on 27 various occasions.
Brende still insists, however, that he only met Epstein three times, between 2017 and 2019, mostly in connection with the opening of the UN in New York and always with other business executives present. He claims to have been unaware of Epstein’s criminal background.
Brende told NRK that he was introduced to Epstein by Rød-Larsen, “but in my wildest fantasy I would never have thought I’d be introduced to a former sex offender.” He also called Epstein “a monster” and claimed he never would have had anything to do with him if he’d known about his background.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
