The emails found in the Epstein case files may be just the “tip of the iceberg” among the materials that led to the arrest of the former prince of the British monarchy Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, on Thursday, 19, according to the public broadcaster BBC.
The investigation began with the analysis of exchanges of messages between the former prince and financier Jeffrey Epstein, convicted of sexual exploitation of minors, released by the United States Department of Justice.
However, according to the BBCThames Valley Police did not rely solely on these materials to arrest Andrew. Investigators have requested additional emails from the British government and Buckingham Palace that could help clarify the situation.
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When contacted by the broadcaster, Buckingham Palace stated, at the beginning of the week, that it would “support” the Thames Valley Police. Hours before the arrest, when speaking about the former prince’s case, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, told BBC that “no one is above the law”.
The investigators also analyzed the Epstein case files on their own, in addition to requesting full copies from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of Justice, with support from the National Crime Agency (NCA), the main law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom, nicknamed the “British FBI”.
According to BBCeven if the results of these stages of the investigation have not been released, it is unlikely that authorities would arrest a member of British royalty just based on a few email exchanges published by the US.
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Despite being arrested, Andrew has not yet been formally charged. He spent a few hours in custody on Thursday before being released under investigation. The former prince has always denied having committed any wrongdoing related to Epstein, but has not commented on the most recent episodes.
What the emails that started the investigation say
The email exchanges between Andrew and Epstein released by the US Department of Justice did not support the entire investigation, but served as a starting point for its opening.
In November 2010, Andrew went on a British government-funded trip to Asia as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade. Upon returning, he received several reports about the countries visited. According to BBCjust five minutes after having access to the material, he forwarded the entire content to Epstein.
The following month, the former prince again shared confidential files with the financier. This time, it was a report on investment opportunities in the reconstruction of Helmand province, in Afghanistan – a project supervised by the United Kingdom Armed Forces and financed with resources from the British government.
Still according to the BBCin February 2011, Andrew suggested that Epstein invest in a private equity firm that he had visited a week earlier. All of the conversations took place years after Epstein was convicted and served 13 months in prison for facilitating the prostitution of minors.
The current investigation is unrelated to the allegations of sexual assault against minors that Andrew was previously the subject of. Lawyer Virginia Giuffre, one of the main prosecution witnesses in the Epstein case, claimed to have had sexual relations with the former prince on three occasions, one of them at the financier’s mansion in New York, when he was still a teenager.
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Andrew has always denied the allegations, but reached a plea deal with Virginia in 2022, which prevented the case from going to a jury trial. Last year, after the release of Virginia’s posthumous memoir titled “Nobody’s Girl”, pressure on the former prince increased and he renounced his royal title.
