Politician with same name as diplomat in Epstein files hit out after being wrongly identified

A Danish politician has hit out after she was wrongly identified as a Norwegian ambassador named in the Epstein files.

Mona Juul, chairwoman of Denmark’s Conservative People’s Party, has been incorrectly pictured in numerous reports referencing the Norwegian diplomat of the same name.

The Epstein files indicate that the Norwegian Juul and her husband, former cabinet minister Terje Roed-Larsen, made plans to visit Epstein’s private island with their children in 2011.

In a will signed two days before he died in a jail cell in 2019, Epstein said he was leaving $5 million to each of the couple’s two children. On Sunday, Norway’s Juul said she would step down over the “failure of judgement”.

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The Danish Juul took to social media after a string of reports used her likeness to illustrate coverage of the ambassador’s story.

“This is a deeply serious matter that no one in this world wants to be mentioned in connection with,” she wrote on social media.

“So they can damn well check twice before publishing the wrong pictures out of consideration for those of us who have nothing to do with the case.”

She responded to more reports misidentifying her on Monday.

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The Norwegian Juul, 66, was suspended from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq last week pending an internal inquiry of links to Epstein.

Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister, said in a statement: “Juul's contact with convicted sex offender Epstein has shown a serious failure of judgment. The case makes it difficult to rebuild the trust that the role requires.”

Inclusion in the files does not imply wrongdoing.

A lawyer representing the Norwegian Juul said she had voluntarily stepped down as the current situation made it impossible for her to carry out her work.

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”Mona Juul will continue to cooperate fully with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help ensure that all relevant facts in the matter come to light,” her lawyer Thomas Skjelbred said in a statement.

Juul previously represented Norway as ambassador to Israel, Britain and at the United Nations. She and her husband rose to prominence as part of a small group of diplomats facilitating the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords, seen at the time as a breakthrough in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.