British officials shielded Prince Andrew from Epstein trial, ex-US attorney claims

A new book by the US attorney who oversaw the inquiry in New York claimed that British officials safeguarded UK's Prince Andrew from US prosecutors looking into his link with the businessman and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. In June 2020, Geoffrey Berman was removed from his position as US attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). In the present, he is the author of the book Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and its Battle with the Trump Justice Department, which was released on September 13.

News of a Senate investigation was already spurred by Berman's charges of political meddling in the most distinguished court in US legal history. His allegations of obstruction in the case of Prince Andrew and Epstein may cause uproar in the British royal family dealing with the Queen Elizabeth II's death.

Before participating in the funeral rites, Andrew had hardly been in the public eye since reaching a multi-million dollar settlement with an Epstein victim who had angrily refuted the prince's accusation that she had been sexually assaulted as a teenager. According to Berman, SDNY prosecutors were keen to speak with Andrew about his association with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was Epstein's former lover and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking in New York in June.

Andrew did not co-operate in the Epstein investigation

The Guardian reported, Andrew Berman wrote in his book, "(Andrew) stated publicly that he would co-operate with the investigation, and we intended to give him a chance to make good on his word." He further that though the "prince kept publicly saying that he was co-operating in the Epstein investigation,"  however, that "was not true."

Berman claims he asked his team to contact Andrew after a lengthy interview with the BBC in November 2019. According to Berman, two prosecutors in New York spent almost two weeks simply trying to figure out who his counsel were. The Buckingham Palace was unhelpful when Berman and his team tried to reach out.  According to Berman, an unending email exchange made it obvious that they were receiving the "run-around" from lawyers who did not want the prince to speak to the SDNY about Epstein.

Image: AP