Norwegian authorities have opened a new investigation into ties between the wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the country's former prime minister, Thorbjørn Jagland.
The probe was launched by Økokrim, which prosecutes economic crime. Jagland is under suspicion of "aggravated corruption," the agency said in a release on Thursday.
Jagland, who was prime minister from 1996 to 1997, is also a former chair of the Nobel Committee and secretary-general of the Council of Europe. His lawyer said he would cooperate with the investigation.
He is one of many public figures whose reputations have been impacted by revelations from the recent release of over three million pages of documents on the financier Epstein released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Even after his original conviction for soliciting underage prostitutes in 2008, Epstein continued to benefit from and work his expansive network of powerful and rich elite contacts.
The files shed uncomfortable light on many of those relationships with the sex offender, though being named in the files does not indicate any criminal wrongdoing. Poland is probing whether Epstein could have been a Russian spy.
Epstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York on charges that he sexually abused underage girls at his homes in the U.S.
The files revealed years of contact between Jagland and Epstein.
Emails indicate that Jagland made plans to visit Epstein's island with his family in 2014, when he was chairman of the Nobel committee, with an Epstein assistant organizing the flights.
At the time, Jagland was in the middle of his 2009-2019 stint as secretary-general of the Council of Europe, a European body concerned with human rights and combating people trafficking, including the protection of victims of sex trafficking.
"Among other things, Økokrim will investigate whether gifts, travel and loans were received in connection with his [Nobel] position," the agency in Norway said.
Investigators also said they would seek to strip Jagland of the immunity to which he was entitled as a former head of an international organization.
"Økokrim continues to look into…the material in the Epstein files," the agency said.
In a statement sent to Newsweek, the Council of Europe's media department said that, as Jagland had left the organization several years ago, "we do not have full information about his personal correspondence or private meetings from that time."
But they had established that Epstein attended events at the secretary general's residence "on at least two occasions".
"We have no indication that this involved official Council of Europe business with Mr. Epstein and there are no traces of these private meetings in Mr. Jagland's official diary at the time," the statement said.
"We have further established that on one occasion, during an official visit to New York in 2018, Mr Jagland stayed in private premises, which according to the media articles could be linked to Mr Epstein. We have also established that on two occasions, in 2015 and 2018, he stayed in private premises in Paris that media reports link to Mr Epstein.
"We have not found records showing he visited Mr Epstein's properties in an official capacity."
Jagland was "duly informed about the Organisation's internal regulatory framework, notably regarding official hospitality and the acceptance of gifts," the statement said.
"Based on the press reports, Mr. Jagland has announced through his lawyer that he will make a comprehensive statement about his contacts with Epstein. We welcome any clarification on the matter. We have not been in touch with Mr. Jagland."
Jagland's legal representative told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that his client is cooperating with the investigation.
"Based on the information we have uncovered so far, we believe it is quite straightforward to establish that this is not a case of transfer of benefits," Jagland’s lawyer, Anders Brosveet, told NRK, originally in Norwegian.
"We will submit our key findings and the documentation we have as quickly as possible—hopefully tomorrow. But this concerns matters going back as much as ten years, so it hasn’t been done in the space of ‘one-two-three’."
Jagland is one of several Norwegian public figures under pressure over their appearance in the Epstein files.
The World Economic Forum, the organizer of an annual high-level business summit in Davos, also announced on Thursday that it was opening an internal review into its CEO Børge Brende to determine his relationship with Epstein, after the files indicated the two had dined together several times and exchanged messages.
Brende served as Norway's minister of foreign affairs between 2013 and 2017.
He told NRK that he is cooperating with the investigation, that he only met Epstein in business settings, and he was unaware of Epstein's criminal background.
Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit also faces renewed scrutiny over her past contacts with Epstein just as her son went to trial this week for multiple offenses, including charges of rape.
The Epstein files contained several hundred mentions of the crown princess, who already said in 2019 that she regretted having had contact with Epstein, Norwegian media reported.
The documents, which include email exchanges, showed that Mette-Marit borrowed an Epstein-owned property in Palm Beach, Florida, for several days in 2013.
NRK reported that the stay was arranged through a mutual friend, which was later confirmed by the royal household.
Mette-Marit said in a statement that she "must take responsibility for not having investigated Epstein’s background more thoroughly, and for not realizing sooner what kind of person he was."
She added: "I showed poor judgment and regret having had any contact with Epstein at all. It is simply embarrassing."
This article uses reporting by The Associated Press.
Updated, 2/6/26, 9:40 a.m. ET: A statement from the Council of Europe was added.
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