Feds: Prince Andrew ‘zero’ help in Epstein inquiry
Prince Andrew has not responded to interview requests from the FBI and federal prosecutors in the government’s investigation into accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Manhattan’s chief federal prosecutor said Monday.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said the embattled Duke of York, who indicated last year that he would assist law enforcement authorities with inquires into his former friend’s activities, has provided “zero” cooperation.
Berman declined to elaborate while answering questions at an event hosted by advocates for victims of domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault. The prosecutor did not say when U.S. authorities had sought to contact Andrew.
Facing allegations that Epstein once forced a 17-year-old girl to have sex with the prince, Andrew announced in November that he was stepping away from his public duties as a royal. The prince and Buckingham Palace have cast the allegations as “false and without any foundation.”
In a statement announcing the change in his public role, the prince said he continued to “unequivocally regret my illjudged association with Jeffrey Epstein.”
Federal authorities are continuing their investigation into the disgraced financier despite Epstein’s suicide in August in a Manhattan detention center where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges
Andrew’s accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 36, has asserted that she was forced by Espstein to have sex with Andrew three times when she was a teenager. Giuffre said, she met the prince in New York, U.S. Virgin Islands and London. In an interview with the BBC last year, the prince said he had “no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever.”