Duke must help FBI inquiry into Epstein, says Starmer
SIR KEIR STARMER has said that “of course” the Duke of York should cooperate with the FBI over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Labour leader, and former director of public prosecutions, heaped further pressure on the Duke, as he told Sky News: “It doesn’t matter who you are. You cooperate with the lawenforcement authorities when they ask you to do so.”
It came amid claims that new alleged victims from the UK had come forward to say that they were abused by Epstein,
the disgraced financier who died in prison in New York last year while awaiting trial.
Gloria Allred, a US lawyer representing 16 Epstein accusers, revealed that she had “absolutely” been contacted by British women in recent days who were seeking compensation from his estate after a victims’ fund was opened last week.
She accused the Duke of playing a “cat-and-mouse game” with prosecutors, saying that many of her clients had voluntarily spoken to prosecutors about Epstein and Ms Maxwell’s alleged crimes.
“By the way, they didn’t wait for the gold-plated invitation,” she told Today on BBC Radio 4. “Does Prince Andrew want it presented to him on a silver platter with footmen delivering this invitation from the justice department to come and be interviewed?
“If Prince Andrew’s lawyers would like to contact me, I’ll put them in touch, problem solved.”
Sources close to the Duke said that his legal team had written to the Department of Justice in the US two to three days before Ms Maxwell, 58, was arrested at her hideout in New Hampshire on Thursday.
They insist that his lawyers have now written five times offering to assist with the inquiry into Ms Maxwell’s alleged role in grooming under age girls who were sexually abused by Epstein, her former boyfriend.
The Duke’s relationship with US prosecutors has become the subject of great debate in recent months as he continues to insist that he is cooperating with the investigation, while US prosecutors paint a very different picture.
His judgment has also been called into question after The Daily Telegraph published a photograph of Ms Maxwell sitting on the Queen’s throne in the Buckingham Palace throne room after being treated to a private tour – along with Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Kevin Spacey, the actor – by the Duke in 2002.
The Duke has said that he has “no recollection” of the incident, but this newspaper has ascertained that he was definitely there.
Ms Maxwell is due before a court in New York for a bail hearing on Friday.
The indictment accuses her of facilitating Epstein’s crimes by helping him “recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse” girls as young as 14. It also says that she participated in the sexual abuse.
At the heart of the case is a victim alleged to have been groomed and abused in London in the mid-nineties.