The Storting’s Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs has opened a scrutiny case and is demanding that the Minister of Defence account for the Norwegian Intelligence Service’s (Etterretningstjenesten) connections to Camilla Reksten-Monsen, Terje Rød-Larsen and Jeffrey Epstein.
The background is VG’s revelations that Reksten-Monsen, who for almost ten years functioned as a liaison between the think tank IPI and the convicted sexual offender Epstein, in all likelihood today works for Norwegian intelligence with the highest security clearance that exists.
The Committee asks the Minister of Defence directly: What involvement, if any, has the Norwegian Intelligence Service had with Reksten-Monsen, Rød-Larsen and Epstein?
– One of the things we must obtain answers to is what the Intelligence Service knew about Reksten-Monsen’s contact with Jeffrey Epstein. We must also obtain clarity as to whether officials in the public administration were aware of, or in the worst case contributed to, serious criminal activity taking place, says Hege Bae Nyholt of Rødt.
The Labour Party’s Sverre Myrli, First Deputy Chair of the Committee on Scrutiny, confirms that the case may end in a hearing in the Storting.
– We have decided to open a scrutiny case, and this may in due course entail a hearing in the Storting. But we are moving in complicated waters now that we are putting questions to the Minister of Defence about the Intelligence Service in this matter, says Myrli.
The leader of the Progress Party (FrP), Sylvi Listhaug, questions the systems themselves.
– If VG’s information is correct, it gives grounds to raise further questions about how systems and procedures for recruitment function, says Listhaug, adding that it is a recurring problem in the Norwegian security sector that the various bodies do not communicate with one another and that essential information is not shared across agencies.
335 hits in the Epstein archive
It is not difficult to understand why the Committee on Scrutiny is reacting.
Camilla Reksten-Monsen began at IPI in 2010, aged 23, with the title “Special Assistant to the President”, that is to say Rød-Larsen’s personal assistant. She later became “Chief of Staff”. The year before, Epstein had been released from prison after a conviction for sexual offences.
In the released Epstein documents, her name appears 335 times. And millions of documents are still not public.
The emails paint a clear picture. Reksten-Monsen coordinated dinners and meetings between Rød-Larsen and Epstein. She sent Epstein calendar overviews and travel plans for her superior. She facilitated payments from Epstein to IPI. She sent Epstein information about Rød-Larsen’s salary and remuneration.
In 2014 she forwarded documents on the Middle East to Epstein with a message from Rød-Larsen that they were confidential. Epstein also received drafts of messages Rød-Larsen planned to send to powerful contacts, and provided feedback on them.
Three days before Christmas Eve 2016, Reksten-Monsen received an email from Epstein’s secretary: Epstein wished to send her a Christmas present.
The interns Økokrim is investigating
The most serious dimension concerns two young women who were given jobs at IPI, both with connections to Epstein. Both now state that they are among his victims. The lawyer for one of the women describes her as a victim of human trafficking who has been subjected to extensive abuse.
Reksten-Monsen was involved in both appointments, in 2013 and 2016. In an email from February 2016, Epstein requested that an intern be arranged. Reksten-Monsen followed this up.
This is what Økokrim is now investigating: whether the intern positions in reality constituted consideration for bribes from Epstein to Rød-Larsen, and whether Rød-Larsen assisted Epstein in obtaining employment and thereby residence permits for women he exploited.
Rød-Larsen denies criminal liability. Reksten-Monsen is not accused of any criminal offence, but according to VG’s information is among those Økokrim wishes to speak with.
Document has also investigated how Norwegian and Swedish girls were recruited to Epstein, through his extensive network in Scandinavia.
Photographed outside the Intelligence Service’s premises
VG photographed Reksten-Monsen on her way out of the Intelligence Service’s premises in Oslo, together with a person the newspaper has verified works in the Intelligence Service. VG also has information that she is employed in the Armed Forces, but not in the ordinary branches.
Camilla Reksten-Monsen served as Terje Rød-Larsen’s right hand for a number of years. She was recently photographed outside the Intelligence Service’s premises, together with another employee of the Intelligence Service. She is employed in the Armed Forces, but not in one of the ordinary branches. No one will confirm whether she is employed in the Intelligence Service or not. Photo: Private
Employees in the Intelligence Service require, as a rule, security clearance at the level “STRENGT HEMMELIG” (Strictly Secret), the highest classification in the Norwegian system.
According to the Security Act (sikkerhetsloven), “reliability, loyalty and judgement” are emphasised in clearance assessments. Contact with criminal environments is something that must normally be disclosed and explained.
It is precisely this that the Committee on Scrutiny now seeks answers to. Were the clearance authorities aware of Reksten-Monsen’s ten years as a liaison to the Epstein sphere when she was granted security clearance? And if they were aware, what kind of assessment lay behind it?
The Intelligence Service’s spokesperson Frank Sølvsberg has responded with what has become the standard formulation: “The Intelligence Service can never confirm or deny who works for us.”
Reksten-Monsen herself has not responded to any enquiries. Her profiles on Instagram and LinkedIn have been deleted.
Family connections
The Committee on Scrutiny will probably also have to examine the wider network surrounding the case.
Reksten-Monsen is the granddaughter of Hilmar Reksten, the shipowner who was among the world’s richest men in the 1970s and who was exposed for systematic tax evasion through secret front companies around the world.
Her mother, Grace Reksten Skaugen, visited Epstein at his home in New York in 2013. This was while she sat on the board of Statoil, several years after Epstein had been convicted. Her stepfather Morits Skaugen has stated that he was pressured to sell the large apartment at Frogner to Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul. The apartment is now central to Økokrim’s corruption investigation.
In its own letters to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister, the Committee on Scrutiny has already requested access to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ handling of the IPI warning in 2019, an overview of aid funds to organisations in which Norwegian politicians are involved, and answers as to what the Government has implemented in light of the Epstein revelations.
The Times has written that Polish, French and British intelligence are now attempting to map what they describe as potentially the largest honey trap operation in history. In the United Kingdom, Prince Andrew is under investigation for having disclosed state secrets.
In Norway, the Storting stands at the beginning of an inquiry that touches the core of trust in Norwegian security services. The question is whether the parliamentarians are willing to go far enough, or whether the Intelligence Service’s standard response that it “can never confirm or deny” will once again suffice to close the door.
– For Rødt, it is important that information about possible links between Terje Rød-Larsen, Jeffrey Epstein and the Intelligence Service comes to light, says Nyholt.