Prince Andrew, allegedly, helped his friend, Jeffrey Epstein, secure a reduced sentence after pressuring the U.S. government in 2008, newly unsealed legal documents showed. The Duke of York, apparently, used his status as a member of the royal family to try and get his billionaire friend out of prison.
The allegations that Prince Andrew lobbied for Epstein came from the settled 2015 civil lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's ex-girlfriend and alleged pimp. These documents were recently unsealed in court as Maxwell faces another trial for sex trafficking. This time it is a criminal case.
The revelations come as Prince Andrew said that he is not "good friends" with Epstein. He also, reportedly, claimed he had infrequent interactions with the pedophile before their friendship ended in early 2000. Prince Andrew said that he is closer to Maxwell, whom he knows from his years in college.
But, two of Epstein's victims, identified only as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, told the court in the civil case trial that Epstein sought help from Prince Andrew and other high-profile personalities to help with his sentence in a South Florida court. Epstein was arrested in 2005 for sex trafficking but got a "sweetheart deal" from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Epstein served only 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to prostitution. He was, also, allowed to leave jail for work for six days in a week under the work-release program.
Prince Andrew, apparently, "knows a lot of the truth" about Epstein's illegal activities. One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre, said in the deposition that the Duke of York would have "relevant information" about the pedophile.
Giuffre is the same woman, who revealed that she had sexual relations with Prince Andrew at least three times when she worked for Epstein. She was a minor when she was forced to have sex with the royal.
The woman, also, said that she received instructions from both Epstein and Maxwell. But Prince Andrew denied ever meeting Giuffre in a BBC interview in 2019, which received immense backlash and forced the royal to quit his post in The Firm.
U.S. authorities have been wanting to talk to Prince Andrew about Epstein's case but they could not extradite the royal to America. Prince Andrew's lawyers said they are prepared to give a statement but rejected a sit-down with the FBI for concerns that the Duke of York might be turned into a suspect and not as a witness.
