“I just feel two things now,” Mandelson said. “One, I feel a tremendous sense, a profound sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his behavior and his illegal criminal activities.
“Secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done.”
Mandelson, a veteran of Tony Blair’s government who was a Labour MP at the time of the 2003 letter, said he regretted “very much” falling for Epstein’s “lies” and “accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment … at face value.”
“I felt it like an albatross around my neck since his death,” he said.
Mandelson said he “never saw the wrongdoing” nor “any evidence of criminal activity” on the part of Epstein, who “never sought and nor did he offer” any introductions to women.
“Perhaps it’s because I am a gay man,” Mandelson said. “When I was associating with him those years ago, as I did with my then-partner and now husband Reinaldo, we never, ever saw any evidence or sign of this activity which has since come to light.”