Fampo, 16.05.2026
Until the Epstein documents were released, Børge Brende was nothing less than the president of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He has also been one of the ministers in Norway’s government 2001-2004, 2004-2005 and 2003-2017.
In an article in Nettavisen on 31.01.2026, one can read that Børge Brende had dinner with Epstein in his appartment in New York in September 2018. The Norwegian doplomat Terje Rød-Larsen and journalist Michael Wolff were also invited. After the dinner, Brende wrote “Thank you, my friend. I really appreciated the dinner” as a reply to a birthday congratulation by Epstein.
“If I had known, I would off course never have met him. I should off course have checked Epstein’s past closer, and I regret that I did not do so,” Brende writes in an email to the newspaper Adressavisen.
In the released documents, one can see that Brende and Epstein kept contact until Epstein was arrested in 2019.
In this article by the Norwegian TV channel TV2 on 31.01.2026 one can read that the released Epstein documents reveal that Brende and Epstein dicussed Brende’s job in Davos. TV2 writes that they have asked Epstein several question regarding what is revealed in the documets. “I had no knowledge of hit crminal actions and past”, Brende says.
When TV2 confronts Brende with the correspondence showing that Epstein on March 04 2019 sent him a link from New York Times about Epsteins sentence for sexual crimes, Brende responds: “I was off course not aware of the link, I did not open it”. In the thread, Brende does however answer the message with thumbs up.
Brende says he does not remember the messages. “I really do not remember, As I wrote to you, the contact consisted of two dinners and some emails. I do not remember that we exchanged SMS’es,” Børge adds.
TV2 writes that they have found documentation that Brende has sent SMS messages to Epstein on at least 27 dates.
In a commentary in the online newspaper e24 on 07.02.2026, a fellow Conservative Party politician, Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, comments upon how Børge Brende has changed his explanations.
Røe Isaksen points out that Brende in November 2025 answered a question from Aftenposten regarding what kind of contact he had had with Epstein. In earlier released documents, Terje Rød-Larsen suggested to Epstein that Brende would meet him in Genève. The journalist wrote the following question to Brende:
“I therefore wonder if you have et Epstein on any occasion?”
This is a simple question which is herd to misunderstand.
After some messages back and forth, Børge Brende wrote:
“I have had nothing to do with Epstein and would off course not have asked for a meeting with one who is convicted for sexual abuse”.
In Brende’s case, the Epstein documents showed that not only had Brende met Epstein several times, but they had close contact in 2018 and 2019.
Røe Isaken then asks what to do when one has earlier denied any contact. He points at Brende knowing what to do. Brende now interprets the clearly formulated question as a question regarding whether he had met Epstein in Geneva. So Brende backs, but does not give up:
“I have never asked for a meeting with Epstein, and I have never met him in Geneva,” Brende now writes.
Ræe Isaksen writes:
“He now admits that he had met Epstein, but not in Geneva.
And it was not Brende who asked for the meetings. And except for three dinners there are only “a few SMS’es and e-mails related to this.”
E24 has showed that Brende sent 120 messages, distributed over 30 different days. I am not a matematician, and I am not familiar with Brende’s concept of “a few”, but personally I find this quite a lot of contact.
The messages show that they try to meet several times, But not in Geneva! At a dinner with Terje Rød Larsen – in Vienna, not Geneva – where Epstein clearly should have been, Brende sends a picture and a message: “Miss you, sir”.
The two men text about Istrael’s Prime Minister’s wife resembles “Miss Piggy”, and that Davos is cooler than the UN. Brende calls Epstein “my friend”. He gives thumbs up to an article Epstein sends concerning his convictions for sexual crimes (and tater claims that he never opened the link).
Fampo 