PARIS  –  Veteran French politician Jack Lang, a former minister, was forced out of a key cultural post Sunday as pressure grew on him over revelations in the latest release of the Epstein files. He offered to resign in a letter to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who told reporters he planned to launch the process to name an interim president for the IMA. But Lang continued to insist he was innocent of any wrongdoing. Lang, who has headed the Arab World Institute (IMA) since 2013, is the most high-profile public figure in France caught up in the latest release of private messages from the convicted sex offender. “I offer to submit my resignation” at the next board meeting, the 86-year-old wrote in the letter. As recently as Wednesday, he had ruled out stepping down from his post over the affair. Lang had been summoned to the foreign ministry for a meeting on Sunday but that has now been cancelled, said a source at the ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity. Lang’s lawyer, Laurent Merlet, told broadcaster BFM TV his client was “very sad” to be leaving an institution he loved so much but also “extremely combative and will not let slander gain ground”. On Friday, French prosecutors said they had opened a preliminary investigation of him and his daughter Caroline over “laundering of aggravated tax-fraud proceeds” after they were mentioned in files related to Epstein.