Former senior French minister defends ties to Epstein

Jack Lang, who served as French culture minister under the late President François Mitterrand, has defended his links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Lang refused to resign from his post as president of the Paris-based Arab World Institute after being challenged over revelations from the Epstein documents published in the US.

Earlier, his eldest daughter Caroline quit as head of France's Independent Production Union over her own links to Epstein.

Defending his position, Jack Lang told French broadcaster BFMTV he had known nothing about Epstein's criminal record when he met him "some 15 years ago". The US financier had been convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting a minor for prostitution.

He killed himself in prison in New York in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Lang, 86, served as culture minister between 1981 and 1993, as well as minister of national education between 1992 and 2002. He also served briefly as a special envoy to Cuba and North Korea in 2009.

The former minister, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, said he had been introduced to Epstein by US actor-director Woody Allen, whom he described as a friend.

Epstein, by contrast, was "not a friend", Lang told BFMTV.

"I knew nothing about him," he said. "I found the man passionate about art, culture and cinema."

Over the course of their acquaintance, Lang requested favours such as the use of his car or plane for himself or his family, French daily Le Monde reports.

A brief video clip from the US Department of Justice files shows the two men standing outside the Louvre Museum in Paris.

"I am not in the habit of spitting on those I knew at a particular time and who went on to be accused of crimes," Lang said.

In an earlier statement, the former minister said that had he known of Epstein's crimes he would have "immediately cut off all contact with him".

Caroline Lang, a former actress and now a film producer, told French news website Mediapart she had met Epstein through Allen and his wife in 2012, and he had told her he wanted to "invest in young French and international artists".

She said his lawyers had set up a company, Prytanee LLC, but that she had not invested in it or received any money from it.

An email in the Epstein files suggested she contributed her art knowledge, Mediapart reports. She told the website she had been "incredibly naive".

Resigning from her post in the Independent Production Union, she said: "I do not want this situation to in any way harm the union."