STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly played up his ties to the former head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee in invitations to and chats with elites like Richard Branson, Larry Summers, Bill Gates and Steve Bannon, a top ally of President Donald Trump, the Epstein files show.
Thorbjørn Jagland, who headed the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 2009 to 2015, turns up hundreds of times in the millions of documents about the former U.S. financier and convicted sex offender that were released by the U.S. Justice Department last month.
Since the release, Jagland, 75, has been charged in Norway for “aggravated corruption” in connection with an investigation prompted by information in the files, the economic crime unit of Norwegian police Økokrim said.
Økokrim has said it would investigate whether gifts, travel and loans were received in connection with Jagland’s position. Its teams searched his Oslo residence on Thursday, plus two other properties in Risør, a coastal town to the south, and in Rauland to the west.
His attorneys at Elden law firm in Norway said Jagland denies the charges, and was questioned by the police unit on Thursday.
While there is no evidence in the documents seen so far of any outright lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize, Epstein repeatedly played up hosting Jagland at his properties in New York and Paris in the 2010s.
In September 2018, during Trump’s first term and in an apparent allusion to his interest in the peace prize, Epstein had a varied text-message exchange with Bannon, at one point writing — in one of many messages with untidy grammar: “donalds head would explode if he knew you were now buds with the guy who on monday will decide the nobel peace prize.”
“I told him next year it should be you when we settle china,” he added, without elaborating.
In one email from 2013, mixing in investment tips and praise for PR tips, Epstein told British entrepreneur and magnate Richard Branson that Jagland would be staying with Epstein in September that year, adding: “if you are there, you might find him interesting.”
A year after she left a job as White House counsel to President Barack Obama, in 2015, Kathy Ruemmler got an email from Epstein saying: "head of nobel peace prize coming to visit, want to join?"
In 2012, Epstein wrote former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University president Larry Summers about Jagland, saying “head of the nobel peace prize staying with me, if you have any interest.”
In that exchange, Epstein referred to Jagland — also a former Norwegian prime minister and former head of the Council of Europe, a human rights body — as “not bright” but someone who offered a “unique perspective.”
The financier wrote Bill Gates in 2014, saying that Jagland had been reelected as head of the Council of Europe.
“That is good,” the Microsoft co-founder and formerly the world's richest man, wrote. “I guess his peace prize committee job is also up in the air?”
During Jagland's tenure as chair of the committee, it gave the peace prize to Obama, in 2009, and the European Union in 2012.
Jagland was brought into Epstein’s orbit by Terje Rød Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat who helped broker the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and Palestinians.
Larsen and his wife are also facing corruption charges in Norway due to their association with Epstein.
Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.
FILE - Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjorn Jagland announces the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Friday Oct. 11, 2013. (Heiko Junge/NTB Scanpix via AP, File)
