‘My friends are apoplectic’ said Maxwell after the Prince was first accused
DISGRACED socialite Ghislaine Maxwell complained that her friends were ‘apoplectic’ after Prince Andrew was first accused of having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
Newly released legal documents reveal Maxwell’s panicked email to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein after explosive claims emerged in January 2015 that Virginia Giuffre was forced to have sex with the Duke on three occasions, including in Maxwell’s townhouse in Belgravia.
Days later, Epstein’s address and phone books – containing more than 1,700 names and numbers, including some of the world’s most powerful figures – were leaked online.
‘My friends are apoplectic,’ Maxwell wrote in an email to Epstein on January 23, 2015. ‘Do you know what Edwards [Ms Giuffre’s lawyer Brad Edwards] et al want from all this s***? What are they looking for? What is the end game?’
Earlier that month, bombshell court papers were filed that said that a woman, named only as ‘Jane Doe 3’, was told to give Prince Andrew ‘whatever he demanded’.
While Ms Giuffre was not initially named, she is believed to be Jane Doe 3.
Prince Andrew then issued a statement to The Mail on Sunday that ‘emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts [as Ms Giuffre was known before her marriage]’.
The files released yesterday reveal how this turn of events heaped pressure on Maxwell to also break her silence.
In a series of emails, Maxwell’s lawyer Philip Barden urged her to ‘shout your innocence’ and that ‘saying nothing is reputational suicide’. He warned her to distance herself from Epstein, who he said was ‘already toast’.
‘I will speak to Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers but JE has a conflict with you and will want your silence as whilst you are being attacked there is less heat on him.’
The emails show that despite this advice Maxwell remained in contact with Epstein, who sent her a draft press statement in which he suggested that she declare that she had ‘never been a party in any criminal action pertaining to JE’.
The paedophile also suggested that Maxwell complain that she was the target of ‘outright lies’ and ‘salacious gossip’ and to publicly question Ms Giuffre’s credibility.
Epstein assured his ex-lover that ‘this will now end’ and urged her to get on the front foot.
‘You have done nothing wrong and I would urge you to start acting like it. Go outside, head high, not as an escaping convict. Go to parties. Deal with it.’