Epstein victims' lawyer blasts Prince Andrew for not speaking to FBI
Epstein victims’ lawyer blasts Prince Andrew for not speaking to US authorities one year after he promised to help in wake of disastrous Newsnight interview
- Duke of York has still not spoke to investigators despite 2019 promise
- Epstein victims’ lawyer Lisa Bloom today branded the inaction ‘outrageous’
- In a message to the Prince she declared ‘It is never too late to do the right thing’
- A spokeswoman for the duke’s lawyers declined to comment on her remarks
Prince Andrew has still not spoken to US authorities investigating the crimes of his paedophile former friend Jeffrey Epstein – despite promising a year ago to co-operate.
The Duke of York, 60, was branded ‘outrageous’ today by the lawyer representing six victims of the dead disgraced financier, who killed himself in prison last year.
Lisa Bloom called on Andrew to submit to an interview with the FBI as they investigated another of the Royal’s friends socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who is accused of procuring teenage girls for Epstein to abuse.
She said: ‘How outrageous that it’s been a year since Prince Andrew publicly promised to co-operate with law enforcement investigating all those who enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual assaults on hundreds of women and girls.
‘He simply has not kept that promise. Meanwhile, the six victims I represent struggle to repair their lives.
Lisa Bloom, said it was ‘outrageous’ a year had passed and Andrew had still not helped probe
‘We implore Prince Andrew to submit to an interview with the FBI investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell and other accused co-conspirators, to tell what he knows, to turn over documents and evidence, and to instruct his staff to do so as well.
‘It is never too late to do the right thing.’
Andrew – the Queen’s second son – stepped down from public life on November 20 2019, following the fallout from his disastrous Newsnight interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein.
The Duke of York hosting a Pitch@Palace event at Buckingham Palace in London last year
The duke was criticised for showing a lack of empathy towards the paedophile’s victims and a lack of remorse over his friendship with the pervert.
Ms Bloom made her intervention on the first anniversary of the duke quitting royal duties.
In the Newsnight interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis, the duke denied claims that he slept with Virginia Giuffre, who says she was trafficked by Epstein, on three separate occasions, including when she was 17, still a minor under US law.
Ghislaine Maxwell, is facing a trial in July accused of facilitating Epstein’s sexual exploitation
Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was a friend of the Duke and killed himself in prison
The Duke of York and Jeffrey Epstein
1999 – Andrew first meets Epstein, reportedly introduced through his friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell.
Andrew welcomes Epstein to the Queen’s private Scottish retreat in Aberdeenshire. Andrew later says he sees Epstein ‘infrequently’, adding ‘probably no more than only once or twice a year’.
2000 – Andrew and Ms Maxwell are seen on holiday with Epstein at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Epstein and Ms Maxwell attend a party at Windsor Castle hosted by the Queen to mark Andrew’s 40th birthday, the Princess Royal’s 50th, the Queen Mother’s 100th and Princess Margaret’s 70th.
2001 – Virginia Roberts claims to have had sex with Andrew ‘three times, including one orgy’, with the first encounter allegedly taking place in Ms Maxwell’s London townhouse. Ms Roberts claims to have had sex with Andrew on two more occasions, at Epstein’s New York home and at an ‘orgy’ on his private island in the Caribbean.
2008 – Epstein admits prostituting minors and is sentenced to 18 months in prison.
2010 – Epstein is released from jail. Andrew is photographed with the disgraced Epstein in New York’s Central Park.
Footage emerges years later, reportedly shot on December 6 2010, showing him inside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, from where he is seen looking out from a large door.
2011 – The duke quits his role as UK trade envoy after the fallout from the Central Park photos.
2015 – Buckingham Palace denies Andrew has committed any impropriety after he is named in US court documents related to Epstein. A woman, later named in reports as Ms Roberts, alleges in papers filed in Florida that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, which is under the age of consent in the state.
In April the claims against Andrew are struck from US civil court records following a federal judge’s ruling.
2019 – Epstein is found dead in his jail cell on August 10, having killed himself after being charged with sex trafficking.
The duke, in a statement released on his parents’ wedding anniversary last year, said that the Queen had given her permission for him to bow out of royal duties for the ‘foreseeable future’.
He said: ‘The circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work.’
Andrew added he continued to ‘unequivocally regret my ill-judged association’ with Epstein and pledged to help ‘any appropriate law enforcement agency’.
A spokeswoman for the duke’s lawyers declined to comment.
One year on from withdrawing from his public role, the duke is widely expected never to return to royal duties.
He has faced a war of words between his camp and American authorities over his availability to answer questions about Epstein.
Andrew was accused of attempting to ‘falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to co-operate’ by US attorney Geoffrey Berman, who was leading the investigation into Epstein.
But the duke’s legal team said he had made three offers to give a witness statement.
Calls for him to speak to the authorities were renewed after Maxwell appeared in court in the US accused of facilitating Epstein’s sexual exploitation of underage girls.
Her trial is set for July next year.
As the royal family adjusted to carrying out engagements via video call during the coronavirus outbreak, Andrew, who categorically denies any wrongdoing, stayed out of the public limelight.
The duke’s milestone 60th birthday in February was a quiet affair, with his planned military promotion to Admiral deferred at his request.
He made a rare appearance in April when he was pictured on Instagram with his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, packing cupcakes into care packages for a hospice.
The duke, who saw active service as a Sea King helicopter pilot in the Falklands War, was not present at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday this month.
In July, he celebrated eldest daughter Princess Beatrice’s secret lockdown wedding to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.
But he was missing from the official photographs released to mark the occasion.
His daughter Beatrice and her new husband were pictured with just the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in the shots.
Andrew is preparing to become a grandfather for the first time early next year, when his youngest daughter Princess Eugenie is expecting a baby.
In his Newsnight interview, the duke said that the alleged encounter with Ms Giuffre in 2001 did not happen as he spent the day with Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.
Ms Giuffre said the same alleged sexual liaison began with the duke sweating heavily as they danced at London nightclub Tramp.
But the duke said he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat, and that he had no recollection of ever meeting Ms Giuffre.
He said: ‘I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time.’
JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S UNDOING: A TIMELINE OF THE MILLIONAIRE PEDOPHILE’S DOWNFALL
1999 – Virginia Roberts Giuffre is allegedly recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell to became Epstein’s ‘sex slave,’ at 17. She also claimed that he forced her to have sex with his friend Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth.
2002 – Trump tells New York Magazine that his friend Epstein ‘likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’
2005 – A 14-year-old girl tells police that Epstein molested her at his Palm Beach mansion.
May 2006 – Epstein and two of his associates are charged with multiple counts of unlawful sex acts with a minor. State attorney of the time Barry Krischer, referred the case to a grand jury who heard from just two of the 12 girls law enforcement had gathered as potential witnesses. They returned just one single count of soliciting prostitution.
July 2006 – The case is referred to the FBI by the Florida Palm Beach police who were unhappy with how the case was handled.
2007 – Epstein’s lawyers meet with Miami’s top federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta, who would later become the Secretary of Labor in the Trump administration. They secretly negotiate the ‘deal of a lifetime’.
June 2008 – After pleading guilty to two prostitution charges, the millionaire was sentenced to 18 months in a low-security prison in exchange for prosecutors ending their investigation into his sex acts with minors and give him immunity from future prosecution related to those charges. In reality, Epstein was able to work from his office six days a week while supposedly incarcerated at the jail.
July 2008 – Accusers learned of the deal for the first time.
July 2009 – Epstein is released from jail five months early.
July 2018 – The Miami Herald publishes investigative journalist Julie K. Brown’s exposé on Epstein’s long history of alleged sexual abuse and news of the ‘deal of a lifetime’ after Acosta was made Labor Secretary.
February 2019 – The justice department opens an internal review into Epstein’s plea deal.
July 7, 2019 – Epstein is arrested after his private jet lands at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport from Paris. At the same time, federal agents break into his Manhattan townhouse where they uncovered hundreds of photographs of naked minors.
July 8, 2019 – Epstein is charged with sex trafficking charges which detail how he created a network of underage girls in Florida and New York, paying girls as young as 14 to provide ‘massages and sex acts.’ The charges carry a sentence of up to 45 years in prison.
July 11, 2019 – More than a dozen women, not previously known to law enforcement, came forward to accuse him of sex abuse.
July 24 – Epstein was found unconscious in his cell after an apparent suicide attempt. He was moved to suicide watch at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
August 9, 2019 – More than 2,000 documents are unsealed which reveal the lurid allegations against Epstein in detail.
August 10, 2019 – Epstein is found dead in his cell.
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