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Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, the Metropolitan Police said.
Mr Mandelson, a veteran Labor politician, is accused of passing market-sensitive information to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while he was UK government’s business secretary.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “Officers arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. He was arrested during a speech in Camden on Monday 23 February and taken to London Police Station for questioning.”
“This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas.”
Mr Mandelson was later released on bail, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said early Tuesday.
Revelations from the latest part of the Epstein file prompted Mandelson to quit the Labor Party earlier this month and resign from the House of Lords, the upper house of the British parliament, the same week.
The former politician was removed from his ambassadorship by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in September following the earlier publication of the Epstein files showing him calling an investor “my best friend” in a handwritten note on his 50th birthday.
The revelation of the Mandelson scandal threatens to topple Starmer as prime minister, with the bitter fallout leading to the resignation of key advisers and growing calls from Labor leaders for the British prime minister to resign.
British leaders faced questions about how much they knew about Mandelson’s intimate relationship with the late sex offender when they appointed him ambassador.
Mr Mandelson has not commented publicly on these latest allegations. He has previously apologized for his relationship with Epstein.
British MPs have been told that the first part of the document regarding Mr Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador is expected to be published “soon in early March”.
But some communications between former MPs and Downing Street will be delayed due to “Metropolitan police interests”, Darren Jones, the Prime Minister’s chief secretary, told the House of Commons on Monday.
Mandelson, widely known in political circles as the “Prince of Darkness” for his Machiavellian skills, became Labor’s communications director in the 1980s. He helped transform the party into a globalist, pro-capitalist project known as New Labor, which ultimately won a landslide election victory in 1997 under Tony Blair.
His arrest comes after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of Britain’s King Charles III, was arrested on his 66th birthday last week following further revelations about the former prince’s relationship with Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor became the first member of the British royal family in modern history to be arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office following an early morning raid on his Sandringham estate.
The former prince was held for 10 hours at a police station in Norfolk, England, before being released late Thursday night “pending investigation.”
Police have not said what led to Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest, but have previously said they are investigating whether he shared confidential information with Mr Epstein during his 10 years as Britain’s trade envoy.
Misconduct in public office is a notoriously difficult law to prosecute, and experts have criticized it for lacking clarity.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the body that prosecutes criminal cases in England and Wales, under UK law the crime involves “gross willful abuse or disregard of the powers or responsibilities of a public office”.
Prosecutors’ guidelines state that the person accused must be considered a public official and that there must be a direct link between the misconduct and the abuse of office. It must also be done “without reasonable excuse or justification.”
It must be proven that the crime was committed intentionally. In other words, a public official must be found to have intentionally done something wrong “either knowing it was wrong or with reckless indifference.”
CNN’s Christian Edwards, Lauren Kent and James Frater contributed reporting.
