Gary Gannon apologises to Alan Shatter after post linking him to Epstein

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon has apologised “unreservedly” for a social media post linking former minister for justice Alan Shatter and Jeffrey Epstein.

On Friday afternoon Mr Gannon released a statement saying he and the Social Democrats “unreservedly apologise to Mr Alan Shatter for all damage and hurt caused” by the January 31 post.

He explained the post “wrongly and mistakenly” included an image purporting to show a document from the Epstein files which suggested a meeting had taken place between Mr Shatter and Epstein.

He said the depiction of the event “was mistaken and untrue”.

It was, Mr Gannon said, an image which “derived from an online record of the travel diary of former US attorney general, Eric Holder”.

“The meeting recorded was an official government engagement in Dublin between then minister Shatter and attorney general Holder on the 21st September 2011 and has no connection of any nature to Mr Epstein.”

He continued: “I acknowledge that Alan Shatter never met or arranged to meet Mr Epstein nor had any relationship or contact with him.”

Mr Gannon said despite deleting the post a screen shot of it “continued to circulate” on social media which resulted in Mr Shatter “being wrongly targeted, vilified and subject to antisemitic abuse”.

In a post on X shortly after the apology Mr Shatter said: “I am glad this matter is resolved by the issuing of this statement by Gary Gannon TD & the Social Democrats.”