[0:00]Norway is living through the crisis the US never had over the Epstein files. Yes, Norway, the country most people associate with fjords, Nobel Peace
[0:10]Prizes, and being one of the most stable democracies in the world. But when the Epstein documents dropped, something happened in Norway that didn't happen in the United States. Real
[0:21]consequences. In just days, it launched an independent inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein's political ties. The country's former prime minister and top diplomats found themselves under police
[0:32]investigation and forced out of their roles. Contrast that with the United States, where so far there's been almost no meaningful accountability for anyone
[0:42]named. And at the center of Norway's reckoning is Crown Princess Mette-Marit, next in line to be queen. The files revealed years of emails and personal
[0:51]contact with Epstein long after his 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a teenage girl. Norwegians demanded answers, and eventually she sat down for a televised
[1:03]interview. Now, watch this moment from a few days ago. In 2011, you wrote in an email to Epstein, "Googled you after the previous
[1:12]email. I agree, it didn't look so good." What did you Google, and what was it that didn't look good? I've spent a lot of time trying to
[1:24]figure that out myself. Probably as much as you have. I wish I had the rest of that email correspondence, but I hope and believe that if I had found information that
[1:35]made me realize he was an abuser, I wouldn't have put a smiley face behind it. I know myself that well. But you wrote that something didn't look
[1:48]good. What could that have been? I don't know. I don't remember. It's been 15 years. It's hard to know. That exchange aired across Norway, and it only intensified public questions
[2:00]about judgment, transparency, and accountability at the highest levels of society. So, why is Norway reacting so forcefully while America has barely moved at all? To understand that, I
[2:11]spoke with someone who's been covering this from the inside. Trine Eilertsen, editor-in-chief of Aftenposten, one of Norway's most influential newspapers. She told us about the reaction to that
[2:22]TV interview. We were all wondering what did she find when she Googled him and what didn't look good. And she answered now that she she couldn't remember. It's
[2:33]15 years ago. She doesn't have that email anymore. That that email service, she doesn't use that anymore and it's it's really it's gone for her. And she didn't really answer
[2:44]it. And then the next question that we all had that we didn't get an answer to. Well, well, okay, she didn't know, but did the Crown Prince know? Did the advisers know
[2:54]anything? Or didn't anyone mention to her what was happening around Jeffrey Epstein at that time, especially when the big story about Prince Andrew in
[3:04]in the UK broke? It was back in 2010 already that stories emerged linking the then Prince Andrew to Jeffrey Epstein. So, now Norwegians are asking, how come members of the Crown Princess's inner
[3:15]circle were seemingly unaware of Epstein's crimes? It has kind of moved from from a story about her and her ability to judge what kind of
[3:25]relationships she walks into to questions to the institutions that how does this institution really vet
[3:35]the people that they initiate relationships with? Of course, the royals must have a private life. They must have a private relationships.
[3:46]We have no right to know what they talk to with all those private relationships, but when you initiate a new relationship like this one, who asks questions, who vets these
[3:58]people, who gets a picture of what they want from the Crown Princess, for instance, when they uh when they get her into their close orbit, as they as Jeffrey Epstein did?
[4:09]Let's set the royals aside for a moment and look at the broader political fallout from the Epstein files in Norway. The revelations now touch a former prime minister and several top
[4:19]diplomats, and the ramifications are significant. The Epstein papers that were released a couple of months ago, they showed that the two of the most famous diplomats in
[4:29]Norway, Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen, they were mentioned in in those papers quite a lot. And And who are they? They were the two Norwegian diplomats that
[4:39]brokered the Oslo Agreement uh in the early '90s where the Palestinians and the Israelis finally
[4:48]managed to agree on on some sort of path to peace. They are quite famous both in Norway and abroad for that work and also work they have done after that and in
[4:59]the decades after that. And now now we've understood that uh Jeffrey Epstein was a close friend of both of them, and they visited him in in the house in Palm Beach. And
[5:11]the questions really, now that they are charged with with corruption, is what did he receive in return from
[5:21]what he gave them? And there's a big investigation going on against the two of them. And also the former Norwegian prime minister,
[5:32]foreign minister, and leader of the European Council, Thorbjørn Jagland, also he was the leader of the Labour Party for years. He's also under
[5:42]investigation for for the same with the same questions. So it is been a shock that some of the most famous diplomats and profiles really in international
[5:54]politics from Norway has been dragged into this Epstein sphere like they have been now. Okay, back to the royal family. While senior political
[6:04]figures saw immediate consequences after their ties to Epstein were revealed, that hasn't been the case for the Crown Princess. In a monarchy, you can't simply remove
[6:14]someone because you disapprove of their actions. Well, I think everybody understands that the Crown Princess, she she is not elected. She is married to the Crown Prince. So, he sort of decides
[6:26]if she is to continue in that role. Uh but also, as far as we know, she hasn't broken any laws. She has She has been in
[6:37]a in a relationship, a friendly relationship was which I think well, she and everybody else thinks was not good for the confidence to the to
[6:48]the royal family or to her and her ability to really judge these situations. Uh but of course, we have questions, many of us,
[6:58]regarding what gifts did she receive and what we know this far is that what he has received is legitimacy. I mean, she
[7:10]has been part of his circle of friends. And of course, that was important to him when he was rebuilding his reputation after 2009.
[7:20]And I think that's what she says anyway. She regrets it deeply that she enabled him to build that rebuild that
[7:30]reputation. But it is she's No one's talking about corruption or anything like that in that case. So, the police isn't investigating it and it's
[7:40]it's a different it's a different story. And the Crown Princess's challenges don't stop there. Just days after the Epstein scandal broke, a criminal trial began involving her son. Among the 40
[7:51]charges he faces are four counts of rape. I asked Tina Iversen whether this case has generated any sympathy for the Crown Princess. I think it it depends who you ask, but if you if you look at
[8:03]the Norwegians as a whole, uh the the trust in the Crown Princess has fallen, but I think that is more that has more to do with the Epstein papers
[8:14]than really with her son. I think everybody to a certain degree understands that if you have a son of almost 30 years old, he he he makes his own decisions.
[8:24]Uh but of course it has been it has been tough for her and the family, and she is also seriously ill. She has a long long disease that's really weakening her
[8:36]and really makes her unable to perform her duties right now. So, I think all these three stories together, the Epstein story, her
[8:46]son in trial and very serious allegations and accusations, and and her illness has really uh
[8:56]has made this a rough couple of months for her. So, you see that the sympathy is uh is growing slightly, but people still feel that they need more answers from
[9:07]the Crown Princess and the royal family as a whole. So, let's talk about how the US and Norway are handling this scandal differently. Why is that? In Norway, this story hasn't been as politicized as
[9:18]it has been in in the US, and we see that the condemnation really comes from all political colors and
[9:28]parties, and it's not like the Labour Party are protecting their their people in this story. We are discussing it,
[9:37]not as politically as in the States. We are talking about it as a system and culture and by partisan problem, not really a politicized problem. And I think that's
[9:49]very important to to actually rebuild the trust to these systems that we are handling it uh uh with the authorities, the right authorities at every every point that we
[10:00]should and not uh make uh politics out of this. On top of that, Norway's political comes with very different expectations as to how people should respond to scandal. Some of these people
[10:12]like Tyra Larson and Torbjørn Røed they are not in any position right now, so they had nothing to resign from uh you might say. And uh Mona Høiness was
[10:22]he was ambassador until a couple of weeks ago. She she just uh she resigned and stepped down immediately when she was when the investigation started. So,
[10:33]it's really you have you don't have this discussion should they stay or should they go somehow and and in in in a way I would say there is a certain tradition that you step down if you get if you get a
[10:44]police investigation uh on your back, then you you you can't continue in any role that demands confidence really. What does all of this
[10:54]mean for the future of Norway's monarchy? I think many are very disappointed uh because they gotten a glimpse into a sort of an international arena where
[11:05]people with status and money they they meet, borrow each other's houses, meet at the same parties, and shop together in New York. And it's kind of
[11:14]is a very un-Norwegian thing to do. And I think many were hoping that our royal family was was different and not part of this uh
[11:24]of these circles. Uh but I I think they they can rebuild uh trust. The Norwegians are very forgiving. I think I mentioned that before. They are very forgiving if they if they get a good
[11:35]explanation and they forgive people who have stumbled, fallen, done stupid things, had stupid relationships, but they need them to be
[11:46]open and and honest and we are not quite there yet. What we've seen in Norway over the past few weeks is a reminder that accountability isn't automatic. It has to be enforced by the public, by the
[11:58]press, and by institutions who are willing to examine their own failures. This is now a test of Norway's systems. Can they be transparent? Can they rebuild trust? And can they hold even
[12:08]the powerful to account? We'll be watching what happens next. Thanks for joining us. Until next time.