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Prince Andrew Claims He Came To NYC In 2010 To Break Up With Jeffrey Epstein
By
Claire Lampen
Published Oct 7, 2019
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By
Claire Lampen
Published Oct 7, 2019
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Britain's Prince Andrew has featured prominently in the rumors, legal documents, and news coverage surrounding Jeffrey Epstein's alleged "sexual pyramid scheme." Virginia Roberts Giuffre has long maintained that Epstein kept her as a sex slave when she was a teenager, often lending her out to his powerful friends — and that allegedly included the Prince. He supposedly flew on Epstein's private jet, the so-called "Lolita Express," and visited the financier's "Pedophile Island" near St. Thomas. He reportedly hosted Epstein at two royal estates — Balmoral in Scotland, and Sandringham in Norfolk — and invited the purported pedophile to a party Queen Elizabeth II (Andrew's mother) threw at Windsor Castle in 2000.
By most accounts, the pair were close, but with Epstein dead and scrutiny intensifying on members of his inner circle, Prince Andrew has tried to distance himself from his former friend, with him now claiming he ended their friendship in 2010. Unfortunately for the prince, it's difficult to dispute a big pile of time-stamped receipts placing you and your sketchiest pal in the same incriminating places at the same incriminating times.
In 2010, for example, Prince Andrew visited Epstein at his New York City townhouse — the same townhouse where, following Epstein's arrest in July, investigators found hundreds upon hundreds of nude photos, many of them appearing to feature underage girls. The visit gained widespread attention because, at that point, Epstein had already pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution in 2008, served his lax sentence in Florida, and registered as a sex offender in New York. In a February 2011 article, entitled "Prince & Perv," the NY Post reported that Prince Andrew stayed with his financier buddy for four days, during which time Epstein threw him a lavish welcome party. The guest reportedly list included a number of celebrities, including two other accused predators, director Woody Allen and ex-CBS host Charlie Rose. In the Post's photos from the visit, Andrew can be seen cheerfully waving at young women leaving the mansion; he can be seen strolling with Epstein in Central Park.
The pictures don't seem to hint at any tension between the two, but now, Andrew contends this was a break-up trip: A "senior source" close to the Prince told the Sunday Times of London that the royal only came to New York City to cut ties with his former friend. "The duke has been hammered for one mistake, which took place in 2010,” the source said. "He has apologized again and again for the error of judgment. But what he did wasn’t criminal. It was a mistake. He went to see a friend to tell them he couldn’t be their friend any more."
Still, contemporaneous reports about Andrew's trip make it seem perfectly cordial. In 2013, literary agent John Brockman emailed a client about a meeting he'd once had at Epstein's Upper East Side mansion. When he showed up, he found Epstein and a British man named "Andy" getting foot massages from "two well-dressed Russian women." Andy, of course, turned out to be Prince Andrew. Brockman remembered the meeting as occurring about a week before the Post's 2011 story came out, which would seem to suggest that Andrew's trip may have been longer than just four days, or that he came back after that 2010 stop. Of course, it's also possible that Brockman's timeline is off; either way, the account doesn't make it sound as if there was much bad blood between the two men around the time Andrew says he ended their friendship.
Andrew has previously pledged to cooperate with the FBI's investigation, if asked, and insisted that he never witnessed anything untoward during his friendship with Epstein. One particularly damning photo, however, shows Andrew with his arm around a teenage Giuffre's waist, while Ghislaine Maxwell — Epstein's best friend and alleged accomplice — smirks in the background. Another unnamed source has suggested someone edited this picture to frame Andrew, which...does not seem likely. Still, both the Prince and the palace have strongly denied that the royal had anything to do with Epstein's alleged crimes.
Prince Andrew is not the only high-profile member of Epstein's alleged circle now facing questions over their apparent association with the late multi-millionaire. Maria Farmer, one of the first women to go public with her story of abuse, told the Washington Post that Victoria's Secret CEO Les Wexner helped hold her at the Ohio estate where Epstein and Maxwell allegedly assaulted her in 1996. Farmer said Wexner and his wife kept her under tight surveillance, and that she had to ask their permission before their security guards would let her go outside. The Wexners denied this claim, saying through a spokesperson that, "Before the recent news coverage of Ms. Farmer, Mr. and Mrs. Wexner had no knowledge of her, never met her, never spoke with her, and never spoke with Mr. Epstein or anyone else about her."
And even after Epstein's 2008 plea, Epstein's shadowy businesses appeared to thrive. The NY Times reports that his Southern Trust, a company developing a "DNA data-mining service," charted $200 million in revenue between 2012 and 2017, suggesting that some customers were more than willing to overlook Epstein's personal reputation in the pursuit of a profit.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center in August. The city Medical Examiner subsequently ruled the cause of death a suicide, and with Epstein out of the picture, federal investigators reportedly expanded their scope to include a number of his former friends and associates. No new federal charges have been filed at this time.
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