WASHINGTON _ Buckingham Palace and the Trump administration were silent about explosive new accusations Monday from a top U.S. Justice Department official that Britain's Prince Andrew has provided "zero cooperation" to an ongoing investigation into the late accused sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein.
Although Epstein was found dead in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan last Aug. 10, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, the top prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, continues to investigate the disgraced financier with an eye toward bringing charges against his enablers and possible co-conspirators.
"Ordinarily our office doesn't comment on whether an individual cooperates or doesn't cooperate with our investigation. However, in Prince Andrew's case, he publicly offered, indeed in a press release offered to cooperate with law enforcement investigating the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators," Berman explained to reporters gathered outside Epstein's Manhattan mansion Monday.
Given the prince's public pledge, Berman said he was deviating from the norm to provide an update.
"So let me say that the Southern District of New York and the FBI have contacted Prince Andrew's attorneys and requested to interview Prince Andrew, and to date Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation," Berman said.
The event was staged also to draw attention to a new law in New York that makes it easier for child abuse survivors to bring suit many years after the alleged abuse. In doing so, Berman encouraged other potential Epstein victims to come forward with an eye toward compensation from the Epstein estate, now being settled by his lawyers.
A prominent lawyer representing some of Epstein's alleged victims has threatened to use subpoenas to compel testimony from Prince Andrew, and on Monday chided him for the lack of cooperation.
"Prince Andrew's continued refusal to cooperate with authorities after acknowledging that he would be prepared to answer inquiries raises even more questions about the role he played in the international sex trafficking Jeffrey Epstein and others operated," David Boies, chairman of the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner, said in a statement. "Prince Andrew should take most seriously a deeply held belief in this country that no one is above the law."
British newspapers reported late last year that Scotland Yard had been engaged with the FBI in discussions about how to secure testimony from Prince Andrew. However, Berman provided no details about how and when the request to the prince's lawyers was conveyed.
Typically, any Justice Department official seeking legal assistance from another country makes that request through diplomatic channels via the State Department. It is unclear if that happened in this case. Officials from the State Department, FBI, British Embassy in Washington and Berman's office did not respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department, which is investigating Epstein's death at the direction of Attorney General William Barr, referred inquiries back to Berman's office.
Prince Andrew, who is also known as the Duke of York, stepped down from his official royal duties last November after a disastrous television interview with the BBC in which he expressed little sympathy for Epstein's victims and could not explain a photo taken in 2001 with his arm around one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre.
The surprise event from Berman comes after U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George brought a multicount indictment Jan. 15 against the Epstein estate, alleging in a civil enforcement action that the U.S. commonwealth is entitled to seize Epstein's two private islands, worth millions, because of sexual abuse he perpetrated on underage victims there. The indictment alleged Epstein continued to prey on girls as young as 12 as recently as 2018.
That action itself came on the heels of a 61-page report Jan. 10 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, detailing how faculty and administrators at the prestigious university maintained personal and financial relations with Epstein even after a 2008 deal that allowed him to escape serious punishment by pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The Berman announcement also comes as speculation grows into the whereabouts of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's girlfriend and longtime business associate who his victims allege served as a madam who procured underage girls to feed his predilections. Her whereabouts have been a mystery since immediately after Epstein's jail cell hanging, which was termed a suicide, although some _ including Epstein's brother _ have expressed doubts about that finding.
She figures into questions the FBI hopes to ask Prince Andrew because Giuffre claims she was trafficked to the prince by Epstein. Specifically, she alleges that while riding in a car she was instructed by Maxwell to do for Prince Andrew what she did for Epstein. The prince's ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, in 2011 issued a public apology for borrowing $9,000 from Epstein, via Prince Andrew, a relatively paltry amount given that his stated fortune at time of death exceeded $550 million.
