Donald Trump may have wanted revenge against Norway for the Nobel peace prize snub, but even he could hardly have imagined the damage contained in the latest US justice department’s release of three million emails from the Jeffrey Epstein files.

A string of what appear to be embarrassing messages between a Norwegian princess and Epstein initially led the global headlines. Mette-Marit, the crown princess, communicated regularly with the financier despite his 2008 conviction for child sexual abuse crimes and even went on holiday to his notorious Palm Beach villa. She has since apologised, expressing her “deep regret” for the friendship.

But the royal story is a mere sideshow to the scandal now engulfing some of the most eminent and powerful members of Norway’s political and diplomatic elite.

While a mention in the Epstein files is not an indication of wrongdoing, the files suggest a mindboggling history of association with the convicted child sex abuser at the most senior levels over decades.

The most shocking fallout involves the prominent Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen, both lauded as architects of the Oslo peace accords. The pair are now under investigation by Norway’s financial crimes squad, Økokrim, after it was reported that Epstein left the couple’s two children $10m in a will drawn up shortly before his death by suicide in 2019. Juul resigned from her post as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq on Sunday and is being probed on suspicion of gross corruption; her husband on suspicion of complicity in gross corruption.

Børge Brende, a former foreign minister and president of the World Economic Forum is also under scrutiny after the documents suggested he had lied about his knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. The files show the two exchanged emails in 2018 and 2019 about dining together at Epstein’s New York home. In 2019 they exchanged........

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