Paul Moss

But then Jack Lang was a giant of the French political and cultural scene over several decades.

which makes it all the more pointed that he's now been brought down by his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

He joins the ever-growing list of people whose reputations have been tarnished or ruined by their relationship with a late sex offender.

Our Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield has the details.

Anyone who knows anything about modern French politics and history will know about Jacques Lange.

He's an incredibly permanent figure in the French political landscape.

He's now 86.

You know, he's been around since the 80s as Mitterrand's socialist culture minister back then.

So a very, very well-known figure, now head of this Arab World Institute.

When the files were revealed a week or so ago, it was quickly seen that Jack Lang's name keeps coming up.

It comes up nearly 700 times in the new files.

And his daughters too, Caroline, who was a figure in the film world.

Now, there's no suggestion for a second that either of them had anything to do or knowledge of his sexual activities, but...

There is a suspicion that they were, A, very friendly with him.

It's quite clear that that was the case because Epstein would constantly be in touch with Lange when he came to Paris.

He had a home here.

And then there's more because it's clear also that between Caroline Lange and Epstein, there was some kind of financial arrangement to set up an offshore company in the American Virgin Islands, which was funded by Epstein in theory to buy French artworks.

Plus, there's indication that at some point, Jacques Lange intervened with Epstein to try to arrange the sale of a Riyadh, a fancy house in Morocco, and that he got $60,000 from Epstein to help fund a film about his political career, none of which amounts to criminality.

But it's all highly embarrassing.

And the pressure has been building on Jacques Lange to step down from this sort of diplomatic post, which he's got kind of permanently at the head of the Arab World Institute.