A man identified as “A” who appears to be Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor discussed facilitating meetings with “inappropriate friends” with Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Among the latest tranche of Epstein files are email exchanges in 2001 and 2002 between Maxwell and a correspondent who appears as “The Invisible Man” in the email thread and says he is writing from Balmoral, the royal residence in the Scottish Highlands.
Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, has a well-established relationship with Maxwell. As well as the initial A and reference to Balmoral, the August 2001 emails in the latest tranche include a mention of a valet and having recently left the “RN”. Andrew left the Royal Navy in July 2001. A 2002 email includes a forwarded message that refers to giving Andrew a phone number.
Mountbatten-Windsor and Buckingham Palace have been approached for comment. He has previously acknowledged his friendship with Maxwell. In October he said of claims about his links with Epstein: “I vigorously deny the accusations against me.” There is no suggestion that being mentioned in the files is evidence of wrongdoing.
In one message sent in August 2001, The Invisible Man, signing off the email “A”, asks Maxwell if she has found him some “inappropriate friends”.
“I am up here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal Family,” the message reads. “Activities take place all day and I am totally exhausted at the end of each day. The Girls are completely shattered and I will have to give them an early night today as it is getting tiring splitting them up all the time! How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”
A separate file reveals an exchange between the two correspondents in which Maxwell apologises as she has only found “appropriate” friends, to which The Invisible Man or A replies “Distraught!”. He later references that he has left the “RN”.
Later, in February and March 2002, there is an exchange between Maxwell and The Invisible Man or A in which she forwards correspondence with a third party, Juan Esteban Ganoza, about arrangements for a trip to Peru that include setting up meetings with “girls”. The forwarded message says: “I just gave Andrew your telephone no.” A replies: “I will ring him today if I can.”
“About the girls … how old is he?” asks Ganoza. In the reply, A says: “I am overwhelmed at the kindness and generosity of the offers that are being made for me.”
He adds: “As for girls well I leave that entirely to you and Juan Estoban!”
One line from Maxwell’s forwarded message reads: “Some sight seeing some 2 legged sight seeing (read intelligent pretty fun and from good families) and he will be very happy.
“I know I can rely on you to show him a wonderful time and that you will only introduce him to friends that you can trust and rely on to be friendly and discreet and fun.”
Maxwell refers to A as “a very English sounding gentleman on the phone”.
Photographs taken at the time show Mountbatten-Windsor on a visit to Peru.
Further documents include emails that show how US lawyers believed there were “various factual inaccuracies” in Mountbatten-Windsor’s accounts during their investigation into Epstein.
The internal communications came during a public row between the former duke and US prosecutors over his cooperation with their requests for an interview.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s legal team had released a statement before the June 2020 email in which they said he had on “at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness” to the Department of Justice.
An unnamed lawyer from New York told the former southern district of New York attorney Geoff Berman on 8 June 2020: “Geoff – as discussed, I’ve put together a short proposed statement responding to the press release issued by Prince Andrew’s counsel this morning.
“If we do issue something in response, as you’ll see, I would recommend we keep it short and forward looking, rather than trying to rehash all of the various factual inaccuracies in his account of the past.”
Berman went on to publicly accuse the former prince of attempting to “falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate”.
Elsewhere, the documents reveal the Metropolitan police contacted the FBI last month to ask whether there were any ongoing investigations related to Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Epstein.
In an email dated 10 November, a detective chief inspector from the Met says they were “reviewing” alleged efforts by the former prince to get information on the now deceased Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre through his protection officers.
Earlier this month, the Met said it would not launch a criminal investigation into the claims Andrew asked his taxpayer-funded bodyguard to dig up dirt on Giuffre.
The email from the officer followed documents released by the US House oversight committee and an interview request for Andrew from Democrats on the committee.
It says that after “significant media reporting in the UK” reflecting flight manifests showing Epstein’s visits to the UK, the officer is “reviewing these allegations”. It adds: “[I] wanted to enquire if you still had any active investigations in relation to this matter, and if your team had any involvement in the Oversight committee hearings and any material being presented there.”
