Norway’s economic crimes authority has formally charged former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland with aggravated corruption following revelations in recently released U.S. government files linking the veteran Labour politician to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over a period spanning nearly a decade.
Jagland, 75, was charged on February 5 by Økokrim, Norway’s specialized unit for prosecuting economic and environmental crime, on suspicion of aggravated corruption linked to information contained in the Epstein files. His lawyer confirmed the charge Thursday and said his client denies criminal liability but is willing to cooperate fully with investigators.
Økokrim officers conducted searches of Jagland’s primary Oslo residence and two recreational properties in Risør and Rauland on Thursday, with the former premier photographed leaving his Oslo home alongside his legal representative.
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers waived Jagland’s diplomatic immunity on February 11, clearing the way for Norwegian prosecutors to proceed with formal questioning. The immunity had shielded him from prosecution for acts carried out during his decade-long tenure as the organization’s secretary general between 2009 and 2019. Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide had applied for the waiver, stating that diplomatic protections could not be permitted to obstruct a criminal investigation.
The investigation will examine whether Jagland received gifts, paid travel, or loans from Epstein in connection with his roles as chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and secretary general of the Council of Europe. The alleged conduct is said to span the period between 2011 and 2018.
Documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in November, appear to show Jagland planning solo and family visits to Epstein’s properties in Paris, New York, and Palm Beach. The files also appear to show instances where Epstein covered the travel expenses of Jagland and his family to his properties. A planned family trip to Epstein’s private Caribbean island in 2014 was reportedly cancelled after Epstein fell ill.
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Jagland also faces separate allegations, reported by Norwegian broadcaster NRK, that he solicited Epstein’s assistance in obtaining a bank loan. Police have not confirmed whether this allegation forms part of the aggravated corruption charge.
Jagland served as Norway’s prime minister from 1996 to 1997 and as foreign affairs minister from 2000 to 2001, before becoming president of the Storting from 2005 to 2009. He chaired the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 2009 to 2015, during which time he oversaw the awarding of the Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009 and the European Union in 2012.
His tenure at the Council of Europe, the continent’s primary human rights watchdog, was marked by controversy. Critics accused him of insufficient resistance to Russian pressure on democratic governance standards, and his handling of institutional corruption cases within the organization drew sustained criticism from member states.
The charges represent the most serious legal consequence yet for any European public figure caught up in the widening fallout from the Epstein files, which have triggered simultaneous political crises across several countries.
Norway has been particularly shaken. Crown Princess Mette-Marit, wife of Crown Prince Haakon, was revealed in the documents to have borrowed an Epstein-owned property in Palm Beach for several days in 2013. The royal family acknowledged the correspondence and Mette-Marit offered a public apology for the situation she had placed the institution in, saying some of the content of her messages with Epstein did not represent the person she wanted to be.
Norwegian ambassador Mona Juul resigned from her diplomatic post as scrutiny intensified over her contacts with Epstein. She and her husband, diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen, are under separate investigation by Økokrim for alleged aggravated corruption after Norwegian media reported that each of their children was named to receive five million dollars in a will allegedly signed by Epstein days before his 2019 death. Both have denied the allegations through their lawyers.
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Børge Brende, chief executive of the World Economic Forum and a former Norwegian foreign minister, acknowledged dining with Epstein on three occasions in 2018 and 2019 and exchanging messages by email and text. He said he was completely unaware of Epstein’s criminal activity. The WEF launched an independent internal review into Brende’s interactions with the financier.
Norway’s parliamentary oversight committee unanimously agreed this week to appoint an independent external inquiry into the country’s political establishment’s links with Epstein, a rare step reflecting the breadth and severity of the reputational damage spreading across Norwegian public life.
The Epstein files, released in January, comprise more than three million pages of documents, emails, photographs, and FBI reports accumulated during American investigations into the financier’s sex trafficking activities. Their publication under the Transparency Act has exposed connections between Epstein and prominent figures across Europe, the United States, and beyond.
Epstein died in August 2019 in a Manhattan federal detention facility while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving underage girls. His death was ruled a suicide, though it has remained disputed.
Jagland’s legal team has indicated he will present his account to investigators when formally questioned. No trial date has been set, and no charges have been brought in connection with the bank loan allegation pending further investigation.