Prince Andrew asked to give evidence over his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein
Prince asked to give evidence over his billionaire paedophile friend to a US Department of Justice criminal probe.
Prince Andrew has been caught up in a United States Department of Justice criminal probe and has been requested to give evidence over his billionaire paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein, a British newspaper has reported.
The Sun reports that the US authorities have bypassed diplomatic channels or a request to Buckingham Palace by instead filing a “mutual legal assistance” (MLA) request to the Home Office.
The MLA requests are used in criminal cases under a legal treaty with the UK.
This means Andrew could appear in a UK court to give evidence in the US case within months, and dramatically escalates the pressure on the Queen’s favourite son.
Prince Andrew has categorically denied any wrongdoing in his long term friendship with Epstein and has repeatedly insisted he did not see any criminal behaviour.
Prince Andrew, 60, has retired from public life amidst the public furore of his Epstein friendship and claims by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre that Epstein provided her to have sex with the Royal on three occasions.
Ms Giuffre, who now lives in Queenland, claims on one occasion she had sex with Andrew at the London mews home of Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, when she was aged 17.
Andrew said he has no recollection of every meeting Ms Giuffre and questioned the authenticity of a photograph of himself with his arm around the waist of Ms Giuffre.
During a disastrous British television broadcast, Newsnight, last November, Andrew said he would take legal advice whether to co-operate with US authorities. He soon after clarified that to confirm he would work with US officials looking at Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, but said he had not witnessed any untoward activity.
Andrew told the Newsnight program there was ‘’was no indication, absolutely no indication’’ of young girls procured for sex trafficking at Epstein’s houses.
However, in January this year the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman criticised Andrew for providing ‘’zero co-operation’’.
Sources told The Sun: “It’s a huge statement of intent from the US and it moves Andrew into the realms of a criminal investigation.
“It’s also frankly a diplomatic nightmare.’’
Buckingham Palace has been approached for comment.
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