{"id":156724,"date":"2026-02-16T00:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T00:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/156724\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T00:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T00:22:21","slug":"jeffrey-epstein-played-up-ties-to-head-of-nobel-peace-prize-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/156724\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Epstein played up ties to head of Nobel Peace Prize committee"},"content":{"rendered":"

STAVANGER, Norway \u2014 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. <\/a><\/p>\n

Thorbj\u00f8rn 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<\/a> and convicted sex offender that were released by the U.S. Justice Department last month.<\/p>\n

Since the release, Jagland, 75, has been charged<\/a> in Norway for “aggravated corruption” in connection with an investigation prompted by information in the files, the economic crime unit of Norwegian police \u00d8kokrim said.<\/p>\n

\u00d8kokrim has said it would investigate whether gifts, travel and loans were received in connection with Jagland\u2019s position. Its teams searched his Oslo residence on Thursday, plus two other properties in Ris\u00f8r, a coastal town to the south, and in Rauland to the west.<\/p>\n

His attorneys at Elden law firm in Norway said Jagland denies the charges, and was questioned by the police unit on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

From an \u2018interesting\u2019 guest to subject of banter with Bannon<\/p>\n

In September 2018, during Trump\u2019s 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 \u2014 in one of many messages with untidy grammar: \u201cdonalds head would explode if he knew you were now buds with the guy who on monday will decide the nobel peace prize.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him next year it should be you when we settle china,\u201d he added, without elaborating.<\/p>\n

In one email from 2013, mixing in investment tips and praise for PR tips, Epstein told British entrepreneur and magnate Richard Branson<\/a> that Jagland would be staying with Epstein in September that year, adding: “if you are there, you might find him interesting.”<\/p>\n

A year after she left a job as White House counsel to President Barack Obama, in 2015, Kathy Ruemmler<\/a> got an email from Epstein saying: “head of nobel peace prize coming to visit, want to join?”<\/p>\n

In 2012, Epstein wrote former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University president Larry Summers about Jagland, saying \u201chead of the nobel peace prize staying with me, if you have any interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that exchange, Epstein referred to Jagland \u2014 also a former Norwegian prime minister and former head of the Council of Europe, a human rights body \u2014 as \u201cnot bright\u201d but someone who offered a \u201cunique perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

The financier wrote Bill Gates in 2014, saying that Jagland had been reelected as head of the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is good,\u201d the Microsoft co-founder and formerly the world’s richest man, wrote. \u201cI guess his peace prize committee job is also up in the air?\u201d<\/p>\n

During Jagland’s tenure as chair of the committee, it gave the peace prize to Obama, in 2009, and the European Union in 2012.<\/p>\n

Jagland was brought into Epstein\u2019s orbit by Terje R\u00f8d Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat who helped broker the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Larsen and his wife are also facing corruption charges in Norway due to their association with Epstein.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STAVANGER, Norway \u2014 Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly played up his ties to the former head of the Nobel Peace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15331,75194,477,4100,116,118,117,99,1311,4147,10645],"class_list":{"0":"post-156724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-corruption","9":"tag-epstein-nobel-jagland-branson-summers-bannon-trump","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-indictments","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","14":"tag-jacksonville-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-sexual-assault","17":"tag-washington-news","18":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}