Andrew ignores three requests to be quizzed under oath over Epstein
PRINCE ANDREW has ignored three formal requests to be interviewed under oath about his friendship with serial paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
David Boies, a lawyer who represents more than a dozen of the US financier’s victims, claimed Andrew has ‘not been prepared to co-operate’.
‘We’ve made at least three formal written attempts sent to his address in London and also to his lawyers in the past few months,’ said Mr Boies, whose clients include Virginia Roberts, the woman who claims Epstein forced her to have sex with the prince on three occasions.
Andrew, who vehemently denies all claims of wrongdoing, has hired Clare Montgomery, one of the UK’s leading extradition lawyers. Her former clients include the Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Asked about her appointment, Mr Boies said: ‘ It’s not that I don’t appreciate why he wants to lawyer up – I do appreciate that. But if he could step back and look down the road and focus on what’s the endgame.
‘ If I avoid extradition, do I really want to have this hanging over my head and my family’s head for the rest of my life? Do I want my epitaph to be I succeeded in escaping justice?’
US prosecutor Geoffrey Berman, who is heading the ongoing criminal probe into Epstein and his associates, has accused the prince of not helping an FBI investigation, saying Andrew has provided ‘zero co-operation’. The duke rejects the claim.
However, Mr Boies said he was confident prosecutors would persist. ‘I’ve got quite a bit of confidence that they will not let this drop,’ he added.
He also suggested the duke may be getting poor advice. ‘Often people in his position are surrounded by advisers who sometimes think that they will be more valued if they come across as very aggressive on their principal’s behalf and that can lead to somebody not getting very good advice,’ he said.
‘It can be hard to tell your principal that he’s got to do something he doesn’t want to do.’
He believes footage of the prince inside Epstein’s properties, including the financier’s £70 million New York mansion, may exist. ‘Whether it continues to exist, has been destroyed, or if it continues to exist and is being concealed is something we’re going to have to try to find out,’ he said. ‘We are quite confident both in physical evidence and from interviews such surveillance tapes did at one point exist.’
Mr Boies said he would be prepared to travel to the UK to interview Andrew.
Epstein killed himself in jail last summer after being arrested on multiple child sex charges.
A spokesman for Prince Andrew declined to comment.