Alastair Campbell has opened up about the time he visited Jeffrey Epstein’s at his ‘very fancy’ New York mansion after Ghislaine Maxwell asked him: ‘Do you want to come and meet my boyfriend?’
Tony Blair’s former spin chief knew Maxwell from his work on the Daily Mirror, and happened to be on the same plane as her crossing the Atlantic when she issued the invite, he revealed.
Later that evening, he arrived at the same £63 million Manhattan home that Prince Andrew was famously photographed leaving.
Speaking about the incident on his podcast, The Rest is Politics, he described the mansion as ‘incredibly luxurious’ and ‘very fancy’, reminding him of an ‘old-fashioned University-style club’.
He recalled numerous photos displayed Epstein with famous faces, including ‘most of the presidents of our lifetime’, but he added he was unsure if Donald Trump had made the cut.
After being left alone with Epstein for an hour, he admitted he ‘got a bad vibe’ and believed there was ‘something a bit sly about his face’.
Campbell recalled the incident as Epstein’s former lawyer claimed Maxwell will unveil ‘new evidence’ in a jailhouse meeting with the Justice Department as she tries to get let out of prison.
The ex-spin doctor recalled: ‘It was very fancy, it was incredibly luxurious.
‘It reminded me of those really old-fashioned sort of University-style clubs, where old alumni gather to talk about the old days.
‘It felt sort of old-fashioned, but a lot of very fancy art.
‘He sat for a while behind this really big desk, which sort of reminded me a little bit of the Resolute desk (the Oval Office desk).
‘He has photographs of himself with really famous people all over the place. I didn’t see if he had one of Trump.
‘Trump wasn’t probably remotely on my radar at the time, but definitely most of the presidents of our lifetime.’
He described Epstein as being an ‘incredible name dropper’.
‘I got a bad vibe, and not because of any sense of all the sexual stuff that we’ve since known about, but just the name-dropping and the arrogance,’ he said.
‘There was something a bit sly about his face as well.’
His invitation to Epstein’s mansion came while he was on a flight to America to attend a funeral, when Maxwell happened to be on the same flight.
Campbell worked under Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, who owned the Daily Mirror, when he worked at the paper in the late 80s.
He said he knew Ghislaine Maxwell ‘pretty well’ and added that he ‘socialised with her quite a bit’, describing her as ‘quite funny’ as well as ‘very energetic and very lively’.
‘I always quite liked Ghislaine, I must be honest. I thought she was a really warm personality. I always felt a bit sorry for her because her dad was such a monster,’ he said.
After the pair ‘completely lost touch’, they reconnected on a flight while Campbell was working with the government around 20 years ago. ‘She actually introduced me to Jeffrey Epstein, the one time I have met him,’ he said.
‘It’s the reason I am in the famous black book. Very hurt that he spelt my name wrong.’
He continued: ‘She was sitting a few rows behind me and came up and had a chat.
‘She just said, and I can definitely remember this, “what are you doing tonight?” and I said “not much, just staying in the hotel”.
‘She said, “do you want to come and meet my boyfriend?”.’
That was the last time he saw Epstein and Maxwell, Campbell went on to say, before adding he was ‘surprised’ about her involvement in the scandal.
He said: ‘I can’t say I was surprised he [Epstein] was involved in a real scandal because he struck me as a bit of sleazeball.
‘I was surprised [about Ghislaine]. I can imagine children who have had the sort of parent they had to end up with all sorts of psychological stuff going on.’
He also added that he finds it ‘incredible that she is the only one who has gone to jail’ and believes she may ‘claim she had an unfair trial because she thought she was covered by this deal in a previous another era’.
‘I don’t think saying when I knew her, that Ghislaine was a warm and quite attractive personality, is defending her,’ Campbell continued.
‘It’s saying what my experience of her was. I don’t remotely and would never defend what she has done in league with Epstein.’
