Years of accusations stemming from former Prince Andrew’s shut friendship with convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein culminated Thursday in a second lengthy sought by survivors of Epstein’s abuse, when King Charles III’s brother was arrested. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest is expounded to suspected misconduct in public workplace, not his actions with younger ladies linked to Epstein.
The arrest got here lower than three weeks after a large trove of recordsdata launched by the U.S. Justice Division included a sequence of probably incriminating paperwork that seem to indicate Andrew shared confidential authorities info with Epstein when he was a British authorities commerce envoy, in addition to new pictures of him with unidentified younger ladies.
Andrew, as U.Ok. commerce envoy, might have shared confidential data with Epstein
Emails to Epstein from a sender labeled “The Duke” present forwarded experiences from abroad commerce missions. One is known as a “confidential temporary.” Andrew held the title Duke of York on the time.
King Charles initiated the method of stripping his brother of his royal titles in October, and evicted him from his royal mansion in February.
The 2010 emails present that Mountbatten-Windsor went on a two-week tour of Southeast Asia in his position as a U.Ok. particular consultant for worldwide commerce and funding, which he held from 2001-2011.
The emails had been signed “A” and the signature block consists of, “HRH The Duke of York KG,” which was his earlier title. The unique e-mail forwarded to Epstein included a signature indicating it was despatched by a “Particular Adviser to HRH Duke of York.”
The confidential info included “go to experiences” from Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China, and a “confidential temporary produced by the Provincial Reconstruction Group in Helmand Province for Worldwide Funding Alternatives.”
The temporary discusses funding alternatives explored by the then-Duke of York.
Photographs of Andrew with ladies
One picture within the cache of thousands and thousands of recordsdata reveals a person who seems to be Andrew laying throughout the laps of a number of ladies, whose faces have been redacted, with Epstein confederate Ghislaine Maxwell standing within the background.
One other set of pictures reveals a person who seems to be him hunched on his arms and knees over a lady who’s mendacity susceptible on the ground. Her face can also be redacted.
E mail to Maxwell from “A”
Very like the e-mail with probably confidential info despatched to Epstein, a 2001 e-mail to Maxwell, signed by “A,” asks if she has discovered “new inappropriate pals” for the author to spend time with and have “enjoyable.”
The author, “A,” says within the message that they’re with the royal household on the Balmoral property in Scotland.
The Aug. 16, 2001 e-mail, despatched from an e-mail deal with figuring out the person solely as “The Invisible Man,” stated: “I’m up right here at Balmoral Summer season Camp for the Royal Household. Actions happen all day and I’m completely exhausted on the finish of every day.”
Emails between Andrew’s lawyer and the Justice Division
A number of e-mail exchanges from 2020 present Andrew’s legal professional Gary Bloxsome asking U.S. Justice Division officers to cease making public statements about Andrew — and particularly to cease contradicting the previous prince’s assertion that he wished to cooperate with authorities.
Prosecutors repeatedly stated if Andrew was in truth severe about cooperating with the federal investigation, their doorways had been open. One alternate hinted on the diplomatic delicacy of coping with issues associated to the prince. Bloxsome wrote that earlier than his consumer may cooperate, Bloxsome would “want to assemble info from the Royal Family and others.”
The FBI knew in 2011 of allegations towards Andrew, matching these made by Virginia Giuffre
A 2011 FBI report, which seems to be a file of statements offered by a survivor, alleges that then-Prince Andrew knowingly had intercourse with a 17-year-old woman. The content material of the allegations matches these beforehand made by Virginia Giuffre.
Giuffre alleged that she was trafficked to have interaction in intercourse with Andrew when she was a youngster. Giuffre died by suicide final yr at 41. Her household thanked British police on Thursday after his arrest was introduced, despite the fact that he was not detained in relation to Giuffre’s accusations.
The FBI report says Epstein, Maxwell and Andrew had been at a nightclub in London when Epstein and Maxwell requested Andrew to guess the age of a woman, whose title is redacted within the doc. It reveals that he accurately guessed she was 17.
The report provides that Andrew was “grabbing her waist and fondling her on the dance ground” and once they went again to Maxwell’s London residence, they went into a toilet and engaged in sexual exercise. Two months later, the woman went to Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and gave Andrew an erotic therapeutic massage, the report says.
In 2019, Andrew denied in an interview with BBC Newsnight that he ever had intercourse with Giuffre, saying bluntly: “It did not occur.”
Giuffre sued him in 2021, and the lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed sum.
Ghislaine Maxwell draft assertion seems to substantiate authenticity of Virginia Giuffre picture with Andrew
An e-mail of a draft assertion within the recordsdata seems to have been despatched from Maxwell to Epstein in January 2015. Within the e-mail, Maxwell focuses on a redacted particular person whom she says made accusations within the media towards her and Andrew, and who’s, in Maxwell’s phrases, “promoting her memoirs to the best bidder.”
The redacted particular person Maxwell mentioned seems to be Giuffre, based mostly on the main points she describes, together with that lawyer Brad Edwards represented the particular person.
Maxwell stated within the e-mail that she met the redacted one who was working as a masseuse at Mar-a-Lago and that Epstein interviewed the redacted particular person to be his masseuse. Maxwell claims she understood her to be over the age of 18. Giuffre would have been 16 right now, based on her personal account.
Maxwell stated in 2001 that she was in London and that the redacted particular person met a few of her pals, together with then-Prince Andrew. She additionally stated an image was taken, and provides that she by no means requested the redacted particular person to present Andrew a therapeutic massage.
A well known picture that Giuffre stated was taken in March 2001 seems to indicate Andrew along with his arm round her waist, with Maxwell grinning within the background. Maxwell has typically claimed it was faux.
Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu through Getty Photographs
Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after she was convicted in 2021 for her position in serving to Epstein recruit and abuse underage women. She was transferred from a federal correctional facility in Tallahassee, Florida, to a lower-security facility in Bryan, Texas, final yr after she was interviewed by Deputy Legal professional Normal Todd Blanche. No motive was given for the transfer.
