U.S. prosecutors were investigating Prince Andrew’s ties to billionaire and offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the prince was sheltered from them by British officials, according to a new book authored by a US attorney who was engaged in the probe.
According to The Guardian, in June 2020, Geoffrey Berman was fired from his position as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
“said publicly that he would co-operate with the investigation, and we wanted to allow him to make good on his promise,” Berman wrote in his book “Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and its Battle with the Trump Justice Department.”
Even though the prince “continued publicly declaring that he was co-operating in the Epstein inquiry,” Berman adds that “was not accurate.”
It was reported in the press that the author’s accusations of political participation had already sparked rumors of an investigation by the Senate.
The international news agency speculated that his allegations of royal family interference in the case of Prince Andrew and Epstein might create further distress in the wake of the Queen’s death.
Berman claims that SDNY prosecutors were interested in interviewing Andrew on his relationship with Epstein and his ex-lover Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of trafficking in New York and sentenced to 20 years in prison in June of this year.
Berman claims that he directed his team to get in touch with Andrew after his interview with the BBC in November of 2019.
“nearly two weeks simply trying to figure out who his lawyers were,” Berman claims two New York prosecutors spent.
We called the palace and they were of no assistance. Neither the Justice Department’s nor the State Department’s attaché could help us. His legal team had a lot of questions when we contacted them.
Berman claims that it became “obvious we were receiving the run-around” after “an unending email conversation.”
Berman says, “Despite promising the public that he was ready, willing, and able to collaborate,” he “was not going to sit down with us.”