On the other side of the Atlantic, the documents concerning the sexual predator Epstein are a big deal. When the US administration, in response to pressure from Congress and the public, published his e-mail communications, one thing was clear — Epstein received an e-mail with the official letterhead of then-minister Miroslav Lajčák.
Epstein initiated the single and brief email communication that went through the State Department’s official channel. He sent Lajčák a link to an article on the minister’s email, which claimed that Donald Trump is close to a mental breakdown. The then minister thanked him for sending the article and replied that “we have heard enough evidence on this subject today”. The communication took place on March 24, 2018. At that time, Lajčák presided over the UN General Assembly, which is based in New York.
It was at this time that Lajčák was de facto represented in the ministerial chair by Ivan Korčok, today’s member of the presidency of Progressive Slovakia. “Not the opposition or Soros, but according to media reports about the fall of the government, a member of Fico’s government and his advisor today communicated with the influential American billionaire,” Korčok responded after the publication of the Epstein-Lajčák communication. In the e-mails, the ex-minister also discussed his resignation with the financier and sexual predator. Korčok appealed to the former minister to explain the case.
Lajčák’s explanation did not explain much, except for the condemnation of the criminal acts of the tycoon with the reputation of a sexual exploiter. An adviser to the Prime Minister said that the Epstein case was reopened only after it ended in New York. However, he was convicted of sexual crimes earlier, in 2008.
The former head of diplomacy Lajčák stated in a single statement for TASR that he communicated with the infamous financier only socially as part of his diplomatic duties. However, Epstein called the ex-minister his friend or referred to him as Mir. In the sex offender’s communication with Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon, Lajčák is also mentioned in connection with The Movement project. Although this European non-profit organization never came into being, Bannon and Epstein, along with others, planned for it to coordinate far-right movements in Europe.
Korčok: A meeting in Vienna would be unusual
We also asked the former minister Korčok, who officially became a member of the government only in Igor Matovič’s cabinet, about the published communication. Before that, in the summer of 2018, he went to the post of ambassador to the American Washington. “I did not know about Lajčák’s communication with Epstein, and I learned about it only now after they were published,” he said in response to our questions.
The member of the presidency of Progresívne Slovakia is most surprised that in Bannon’s communication with Epstein, the then minister Lajčák is mentioned in connection with the effort to build an anti-European political entity.
Denník N last week also on the fact that Lajčák proposed to Epstein a meeting at the Vienna residence of the Slovak ambassador. According to the email communication, this was in March 2019, three weeks before Epstein’s arrest. And according to Business Insider, Epstein’s private Gulfstream jet landed in Vienna on March 22. However, it is not clear when or if the two men met in the Austrian capital.
We addressed the Slovak embassy in Vienna and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with questions about the alleged meeting. The Department of Diplomacy only referred us to Lajčák, but he is currently not answering questions. “If Epstein was really offered a meeting by the Slovak diplomatic mission, I consider it unusual,” stated ex-minister Korčok. However, he did not answer the question whether the prime minister should take political responsibility towards his adviser.
Fico takes his time
Miroslav Lajčák has not yet appeared in front of journalists, and Prime Minister Fico is currently defending his adviser. “I have not seen anything that would compromise him. Nothing yet. But we are waiting for further information that may come,” the prime minister responded to a media question. If the findings would compromise him, the Prime Minister said that Lajčák would be dismissed immediately.
The prime minister announced that he would decide on Lajčák’s fate at the government office on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the US administration should release all documents related to the Epstein case within 30 days.
