Unmasking the Meeting: Tony Blair and Jeffrey Epstein's Downing Street Encounter

New revelations have surfaced about a meeting between former UK Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein at Downing Street in May 2002. This meeting, which took place six years before Epstein’s conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, was initiated through lobbying by Lord Peter Mandelson, according to a memo obtained by the BBC.

The memo, penned by senior civil servant Matthew Rycroft, informed Blair about Epstein, described as a ’financial adviser to the super-rich’, and a friend of both Bill Clinton and Mandelson. It detailed a meeting scheduled for 17:00 GMT on May 14, 2002, indicating that Epstein was positioned as a “scientific catalyst/entrepreneur” with a pulse on global markets. A spokesperson for Blair later clarified that the meeting lasted less than 30 minutes, focusing on politics, and claimed Blair had no contact with Epstein thereafter.

Mandelson’s email, which had previously been redacted due to concerns over UK-US relations, referred to Epstein as “safe”, even noting that Hillary Clinton had hoped to introduce Epstein to Blair. The correspondence highlighted Mandelson’s belief that Epstein would be of interest to Blair, as he was in London and broadly involved in various international markets.

Epstein, who had ties to several powerful figures, was convicted in Florida in 2008 and died in custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on further charges. The release of Rycroft’s briefing memo from the National Archives serves to expose the intricate connections between political elite and Epstein, casting a long shadow over the 10 Downing Street meeting and its implications for Blair’s political legacy.