After Ghislaine Maxwell's arrest, all eyes are now on Prince Andrew. The US public wants the Duke of York to coordinate with the US investigators and talk about his connection to the criminal sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
As a lawyer believes the UK government and the Home Office may play some part in deciding if Prince Andrew will talk to the US authorities, a new poll shows he shall do so. More than half of American people want him to be extradited so that he can answer all the questions about his real relationship with the convicted sex offender.
According to The Australian, the US public actively supports calls for the 60-year-old royal to cooperate with the US investigators. They all want him to talk to the authorities about his link to Epstein.
In a poll made by the Redfield and Wilton Strategies, 53% agreed that Sarah Ferguson's former husband should be extradited to the US. This number of people wanted him to testify in court about his connection with the disgraced financier, while 25% strongly agreed.
Only 8% of a representative sample of US registered voters disagreed, while 22% neither agreed nor disagreed, and 17% were had no idea.
Meanwhile, a leading extradition lawyer told Sky News that it's "very likely" that the UK government and the Home Office would play a part in deciding "if and when" Prince Andrew should talk to the US authorities. Although the troubled prince "wouldn't and couldn't" be surrendered as the foreign investigators only wanted to talk to him as a witness, the prosecutors already submitted a mutual legal assistance request (MLA) to ask the Home Office to help them speak to the duke.
Karen Todner, who helped with the extradition of the computer hacker Gary Mckinnon and Lauri Love to the US, told the publication that the MLA would make it "virtually impossible" for the UK government and Home Office to avoid Prince Andrew's scandal. She added that these two departments were now "inevitably involved" in the issue.
Todner explained that the Americans wanted to ask him questions and to be under oath when he answers. As Prince Andrew doesn't have any diplomatic immunity, the process will follow through when it begins.
The lawyer believed it would take six months or so for the process to take. But if Prince Andrew's legal team decides to "judicially review" the issuing of the MLA request, it may take up to a year.
