Half of Americans want Prince Andrew extradited
As Ghislaine Maxwell prepares to face court, more than half of Americans polled believe that the Duke of York should face questioning in the US.
More than half of Americans believe that the Duke of York should be extradited to answer questions about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a poll shows.
As Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, prepares for a court hearing in New York on Tuesday, the US public strongly supports calls to compel the duke to talk to investigators. He said last November that he had been introduced to Epstein by Ms Maxwell. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 36, has claimed that Epstein made her have sex with Andrew three times, including when she was 17. The duke has vehemently denied the allegation and said that he does not remember having met her.
Asked by the pollster Redfield and Wilton Strategies whether they agreed that “Prince Andrew should be extradited to the United States to testify in court about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein”, 53 per cent of a representative sample of US registered voters agreed, including 25 per cent who strongly agreed. Only 8 per cent disagreed; 22 per cent said that they neither agreed nor disagreed; and 17 per cent said that they did not know.
Ms Maxwell, 58, was arrested at an isolated 156-acre estate in New Hampshire this month and charged with procuring girls as young as 14 for abuse by Epstein between 1994 and 1997. She will appear via videocall before a judge at a US district court in Manhattan on Tuesday. The hearing is both an arraignment, in which the six charges against her will be read out, and a bail hearing. Four charges relate to the sex trafficking of under-age girls and two are for perjury in depositions about her role in Epstein’s abuses.
In court papers filed on Monday, prosecutors said that they expected “one or more victims” to speak at Tuesday’s hearing and urged the judge not to grant bail. They said that the women had provided “detailed, credible evidence”.
In a document request filed last week Ms Maxwell’s lawyers said that she “vigorously denies the charges, intends to fight them and is entitled to the presumption of innocence”. They said that she was not a flight risk, citing her lack of a criminal record and her decision to stay in the US after Epstein was arrested last July. The financier died aged 66 in a New York jail while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges last August. His death was ruled a suicide. He had been convicted in 2008 of procuring a girl under 18 for prostitution.
Andrew, 60, has been involved in a wrangle with the US authorities over whether he would answer questions about his relationship with Epstein. Audrey Strauss, the acting US attorney for the southern district of New York, urged him: “Come in to talk to us.” Her predecessor, Geoffrey Berman, said that the duke had refused to help. The duke has insisted that he is willing to co-operate and sources close to his legal team said that they had tried to speak to the US authorities but had no response.
The Times
More Coverage
Cissy Houston: soul singer who shepherded daughter Whitney’s career
Grammy-winning soul singer who backed everyone from Elvis to Aretha before shepherding her daughter Whitney’s career
End game? Appeasing Iran will only lead to a wider regional war
After pounding Hezbollah, Israel must attack the Iran’s nuclear sites. Appeasement doesn’t prevent war, it ensures a conflict that’s infinitely more terrible than it might otherwise have been.