On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee released 20 pages of documents, which are said to contain communications from the late American financier, Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of sexual exploitation of minors.
Slovak daily SME:, which has analyzed part of the archive, reported finding what appears to be direct correspondence between Epstein and Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajcak from 2018.
On the same day, a screenshot was circulated on social media showing a message between Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's former chief strategist, and Epstein.
In the email dated March 15, 2018, Epstein mentions "Miro Lajčák" and notes that "the government in Slovakia is falling."
The timing coincides with the events when Slovak President Andrej Kiska accepted the resignation of Robert Fico's government after mass protests over the murder of journalists Jan Kuciak and Martinas Kushnirova.
None of this correspondence proves that Lajcak was invited to, or participated in, any meeting with Epstein or Bannon.
SMM also found an apparent email exchange from March 24, 2018, in which Epstein sent Lajcak an article from the Daily Beast titled “How Close Is Donald Trump to Mental Collapse?”
The response attributed to Lajcak was "Thank you! I think we have heard enough evidence today on this topic."
Although the sender's address has been redacted, the signature indicates that it was an official email from the Slovak Foreign Ministry. The tone of the exchanges was informal and contained no references to any controversial or illegal activity. Lajčák has not yet made a statement regarding the release of the documents.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender who had been accused for years of abusing underage girls and selling them to wealthy clients, was arrested in July 2019 and died the following month in a New York prison - his death was officially ruled a suicide.
The release of the documents was quickly seized upon by Slovak politician Lubos Blaha, an MEP from the ruling Smer party, who posted a dramatic video and commentary on Telegram. Blaha claims, without evidence, that the new emails prove that the United States had planned to overthrow Fico's government in 2018.
He claims that one email contained the phrase “This week the Slovak government will fall, as we planned.” No Slovak media outlet, including SME and TV Markiza, has confirmed the existence of such a phrase, and the document Blaha cites has not been independently verified.
Otherwise, Lajcak was appointed by the Council of the European Union on April 2, 2020 as Special Representative for the Kosovo-Pristina Dialogue, while he left last year to be replaced by the Dane, Peter Sorensen. /Telegraph/
