In Paris and London, the police opened a new investigation into the Epstein files

LONDON – The global exodus from the Epstein files deepened on Wednesday, as French authorities urged survivors to come forward and British police searched private flights to and from London linked to the late financier and sex offender.

The US Department of Justice’s release of 3.5 million files surrounding Jeffrey Epstein has led to major arrests, resignations and investigations across Europe and beyond.

On Wednesday, Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau opened two lines of investigation, one into alleged human trafficking and one into possible financial violations related to Epstein.

This was in the hope that some victims would “come forward even though they hadn’t done so in years,” an official in the prosecutor’s office told NBC News, while legal experts did “a lot of work” to review the files.

Five magistrates will be appointed to be “entry points for various complaints, reports, and any other information that is sent to us, so that we can consolidate it and ensure that no information is missed,” the official added.

The investigation into possible financial crimes will involve the Office of the National Financial Prosecutor, which earlier this month opened a separate investigation into former French Culture Minister Jack Lang, 86, over allegations of “tax evasion” after French investigative agency Mediapart reported on a company co-founded by Epstein’s daughter and Lang’s daughter in the US Virgin Islands.

Lang then resigned as president of the Arab World Institute, a prestigious think tank in Paris whose headquarters were raided by French police on Monday.

He denied the allegations, saying in a statement on February 7 that he accepted the investigation “calmly and calmly” and hoped it would “allow us to fully clarify the allegations regarding the attack on my integrity and honor.”

Meanwhile in Britain, police on Wednesday confirmed they were examining revelations in files about flights linked to Epstein that used Stansted Airport, north-east London.

“We are considering the information that has come to light about private jets entering and leaving Stansted Airport following the publication of the US DoJ Epstein files,” a spokesman for Essex Police, which includes the county, said in a statement.

Last year, an investigation by the BBC found that 87 flights linked to Epstein had arrived or departed from British airports between the early 1990s and 2018.

Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister, last week criticized a history of “systematic failure” in Britain to monitor Epstein’s “thirty-year criminal enterprise”.

Writing in The New Statesman, a left-wing political magazine, he alleged that Stansted was “where women were transferred from one Epstein plane to another,” citing files and the BBC’s discovery of “incomplete flight logs” that did not include the names of other passengers, both male and female.

A search of the DOJ’s Epstein Library returned 88 mentions of the name “Stansted,” including discussions of fuel costs and airline manifestos.

Stansted Airport said in a statement that it is not responsible for private flights, rather they are operated by private operators. For visas and border checks, NBC News referred the UK Border Force to its statement from Thursday.

“All people who arrive in the United Kingdom, regardless of how they enter, will be thoroughly screened,” he said. “Entry may be denied if an individual has a felony conviction, a history of serious or persistent offending, or fails to disclose prior convictions.” This statement did not address passengers changing flights at UK airports without entering the country.

British police have set up a national liaison team, which they say will look into Epstein’s ties to Britain and its officials.

A spokesperson for the National Council of Police Officers said the investigation “may take time due to the volume of material and the complexity of international locations, but the police and our law enforcement partners are taking this matter seriously, and will thoroughly process all information.”

Thames Valley Police, which covers the area north-west of London, said they were looking into allegations of “misconduct in public office” against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who has been stripped of his title as Prince Andrew and is still under scrutiny for his friendship with Epstein. He denies wrongdoing.

London’s Metropolitan Police earlier this month launched an investigation into Peter Mandelson, who was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to the United States after files revealed more details about his friendship with Epstein. The force said it had launched an investigation into “alleged misconduct in public office,” although in line with a British police conference it did not name Mandelson, who has previously denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

Other prominent figures included in the files include former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland, who was indicted on Thursday for “gross corruption” over his relationship with Epstein, according to the country’s financial police, and Miroslav Lajčák, the national security adviser to Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico. Lajčák resigned after the files showed an email exchange between him and Epstein.

Both former officials have denied wrongdoing, although Lajcak admitted he showed “bad judgment.” Jagland told Aftenposten that he is “very happy that this matter is being clarified” and plans to cooperate fully with the authorities.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Saturday that her agency had released all the files required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, although some lawmakers complained that the disclosures did not go far enough.

An independent United Nations panel of experts said on Monday that the alleged crimes contained in the documents were “so serious” that “a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold for crimes against humanity.”