The bombshell claim that Prince Andrew participated in an ‘underage orgy’ on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island has prompted questions of whether he will now face another US law enforcement investigation.
Andrew – who has always denied wrongdoing – is among those named in newly unredacted court documents released by the Southern District Court of New York yesterday.
His association with Epstein and claims he slept with Virginia Giuffre are not new, but her claim that he took part in an ‘orgy’ with ‘other underage girls’ at Epstein’s home in the US Virgin Islands is among the most serious new allegations.
The FBI declined to comment when asked if the ‘orgy’ claim would be investigated.
Prosecutors in the US Virgin Islands, where the apparent incident took place, have not yet publicly addressed it.
Prince Andrew at Sandringham on Christmas Day, 2023. He is said to have avoided prosecutors questions in 2019 despite publicly vowing to assist with the investigation into Epstein
The palace has not commented on the allegation, citing a policy that it does not comment on non-working royals. Andrew stepped down from official duties in 2019 after his association with Epstein was pored over in the wake of the pedophile’s death.
A 2019 investigation into Epstein’s network put Andrew in its sights, but prosecutors say he was uncooperative and their work led nowhere.
In a 2022 memoir about the probe, former prosecutor Geoffrey Berman said his office got nowhere in trying to compel the UK to cooperate with the investigation.
Berman declined to comment on the orgy allegation when contacted by DailyMail.com today.
‘Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, was friends with both Epstein and Maxwell. He had been at the New York mansion and on the island. He stated publicly that he would cooperate in the investigation, and we intended to give him a chance to make good on his word.
‘I did not normally mention anyone’s name in relation to an ongoing investigation. Prince Andrew was the exception because he kept publicly saying that he was cooperating in the Epstein investigation, which was not true.
‘It started in November 2019, when Prince Andrew, following a disastrous televised interview about his association with Jeffrey Epstein, issued a press release stating that he would be willing to help in our investigation.
Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell at Maxwell’s London home
‘Of course I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required’.
‘I asked our team to reach out to his lawyers to set up an interview. Alex Rossmiller and Ted Diskant spent about two weeks just trying to find out who his lawyers were. We tried calling Buckingham Palace, and they were not helpful. We tried the DOH attaché, and the State Department, no luck. When we finally got to his lawyers, they had all these questions.
“What kind of interview will it be? Are there any protections? Is there this? Is there that? And where do you want it to take place? And we kept answering, and all that led to was further questions, and then they’re saying, you know, “we’ll consider it.”
‘It was an endless email exchange and it was clear we were getting the runaround. He was not going to sit down for an interview with us, despite assuring the public that he was ready, willing and able to cooperate.’
‘In January 2020, when I was asked at a press conference on the steps of Epstein’s mansion whether he was cooperating with our investigation, I said, “to date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation.”
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman speaks at an event held by Safe Horizon, a non-profit victim services agency, in front of Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan residence as they raise awareness for New York State’s Child Services Act, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. He said Prince Andrew provided ‘zero cooperation’ in the investigation
Geoffrey Berman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photograph of Jeffrey Epstein as he announces the financier’s charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, in New York, U.S., July 8, 2019.
‘My statement brought his lawyers to the table again. But it was more of the same. Repetitive emails back and forth with no commitment on his part. We said that if they are serious about cooperating, just name the time and place and we will be there. The lawyers never did.
‘We were getting nowhere with seeking Prince Andrew’s voluntary cooperation. It was time to compel him. We sent what’s known as an MLAT request through the State Department. It stands for “mutual legal assistance treaty”, an agreement between countries to assist each other in criminal investigations. In practice, it means that your investigations are not going to get stopped at the borders; you’ll get access to the people you need to talk to.
‘Because of our very good relations with the UK and Scotland Yard, we almost always got what we asked when we put in an MLAT request. And I think they got the same from us. But that was not what happened with Prince Andrew. We got absolutely nowhere. Were the protecting him? I assume someone was.
‘His lawyers later falsely accused us of pestering him just for the news value of it.
“They are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered,’ a statement from them read in June 2020.
‘Just to be clear, there was no assistance proffered…Prince Andrew clearly knew Epstein and Maxwell. He was on the island. He was at the mansion in New York. He was in London with them.
‘We had a lot of questions for him, and as of the day I was fired, those questions remained unanswered.’
Attorneys for Virginia Giuffre are also yet to comment on the incident or whether it has been investigated by police.
Berman, the prosecutor in charge of the Epstein investigation, was fired by Trump in June 2020 after prosecuting his former attorney Michael Cohen and opening an investigation into Rudy Giuliani, his lawyer and long-time confidante.