Jeffrey Epstein investigation: Prince Andrew NOT cooperating

Prince Andrew has not returned federal prosecutors’ interview requests despite publicly offering to cooperate with their ongoing investigation into pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his potential co-conspirators. 

Speaking to reporters outside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion on Monday, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman said that prosecutors have contacted Prince Andrew’s attorneys but have not received a response.  

‘To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation,’ Berman said.  

Prince Andrew said in November that he was willing to assist US officials with investigations into Epstein and his associates.

‘Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required,’ he said in a statement soon after being grilled about his ties to the disgraced financier in a TV interview. 

Berman made his latest remarks about the Epstein case during a joint appearance with members of Safe Horizon, a nonprofit victim services agency, to discuss a new New York law that makes it easier for people to sue over childhood sexual abuse.

The attorney wouldn’t discuss the Epstein investigation in detail, but did confirm that prosecutors are looking at possible ‘conspirators’ who worked with the disgraced financier.  

‘Jeffrey Epstein couldn’t have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward,’ Berman said. 

The attorney declined comment when asked if Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime partner, is cooperating with investigators.  

Speaking to reporters outside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion on Monday, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman said that prosecutors have contacted Prince Andrew’s attorneys but have not received a response

Berman declined comment when asked if Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime partner and alleged madam, is cooperating with investigators. Epstein and Maxwell are pictured in 2005

Before responding to a reporter’s question about Andrew’s involvement in the investigation, Berman acknowledged that his office typically doesn’t comment on whether a particular individual is cooperating. 

‘However, in Prince Andrew’s case, he publicly offered, indeed in a press release, offered to cooperate with law enforcement investigating the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators,’ Berman said.  

Buckingham Palace is not commenting on the matter.  

A source told DailyMail.com: ‘This issue is being dealt with by the Duke of York’s legal team.’ 

Andrew has categorically denied having any knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing teenage girls. 

The prince announced that he was withdrawing from his royal duties late last year amid renewed attention over his friendship with Epstein, and a woman’s claim that she had several sexual encounters with the prince, starting when she was just 17.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre says that after meeting her in Florida in 2000, Epstein flew her around the world and pressured her into having sex with numerous older men, including Andrew, two senior US politicians, a noted academic, wealthy financiers and the attorney Alan Dershowitz, who is now part of President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team.

All of those men have denied the allegations.

Giuffre has said she had sex with Andrew three times at Epstein’s request, including once in London in 2001 at the home of Epstein’s girlfriend, Maxwell.

Prince Andrew is pictured with Epstein in Central Park in New York in February 2011

Virginia Roberts, who claims that Prince Andrew had sex with her after Epstein trafficked her to London, is pictured with the Duke of York in 2001

In the November TV interview with the BBC, Andrew maintained that he does not recall meeting Giuffre.  

He insisted he did not spend time with her at Tramp Nightclub in London on March 10, 2001, after which she claims the pair first had sex.

The duke denied he slept with her on three separate occasions, saying the encounter in 2001 did not happen as he had taken his daughter Princess Beatrice to Pizza Express in Woking for a party, and they spent the rest of the day together. 

A photograph apparently showing Andrew with his arm around then 17-year-old Roberts, now Giuffre, that evening and with Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell standing in the background, has been widely published. 

Supporters of Andrew, however, have disputed its authenticity.  

In a November TV interview, Andrew maintained that he does not recall meeting Giuffre 

US Attorney General William Barr has vowed to aggressively investigate and bring charges against anyone who may have helped Epstein, who killed himself in his jail cell last summer while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The case brought renewed scrutiny to Epstein’s many high-profile associates, including Andrew, who says he met the financier in 1999. 

The pair maintained their friendship even after Epstein served 13 months in a Florida county jail after pleading guilty to charges of soliciting prostitution in 2008. 

Andrew came under fire in 2010 after it was revealed that he stayed at Epstein’s Manhattan home following his release from jail.     

Asked during the November interview whether he regretted continuing his friendship with Epstein, Andrew said: ‘Do I regret the fact that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming? Yes.’ 

The BBC interviewer replied: ‘Unbecoming? He was a sex offender.’

Andrew was also friends with Maxwell, the British socialite accused in several civil lawsuits of recruiting girls and young women for Epstein to sexually abuse.

Last week, a former police protection officer for Andrew came forward to claim that Maxwell would visit the prince at Buckingham Palace up to four times a day and that the pair would enjoy picnics together on the grounds of the estate in London. 

Met Police officer Paul Page, who worked for the Royals from 1998 to 2004, told The Mirror he first became aware of who Maxwell was in 2001 when the privy purse – the office that handles the Queen’s private income – called to inform him that a guest was coming to see Andrew but that the name was not to be entered into the book. 

‘She turned up in a chauffeur-driven Range Rover and we let her in. Half an hour after that me and my colleague walked through the garden to go back to the police lodge and he was having a picnic with her by the summer house, opposite the Queen’s ­bedroom window,’ Page said.

‘One of my colleagues saw her come in and out the Palace four times in one day.’ 

Maxwell has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein but is believed to be one of the key figures in the US government’s probe. 

Two guards who were supposed to be monitoring Epstein the night he was found dead have already been charged with falsifying the jail’s log books to indicate they were performing checks on prisoners, when they were actually sleeping or browsing the internet.