Epstein victims want former Prince Andrew to testify before lawmakers. He's unlikely to do so
London (AP): Former Prince Andrew saw his reputation destroyed six years ago and became the butt of internet jokes when he gave a disastrous interview to the BBC about his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
He's unlikely to take that risk again even as Prime Minister Keir Starmer, U.S. Congress members and lawyers representing Epstein's victims call for him to tell investigators what he knows about Epstein and his network of rich and powerful friends.
“If you view the Newsnight evidence as a precedent, then who knows what Andrew would say or how he would come across in what would be some very, very hostile questioning — far (more) hostile than he faced from Emily Maitlis,'' Craig Prescott, an expert on constitutional law and the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London, said, referring to the 2019 BBC interview. “It's very difficult to see how that is, in a sense, in the interests of Andrew to do that voluntarily.”
The pressure for Andrew to testify is growing after the latest release of documents from the US Justice Department's investigation into Epstein revealed further unsavory details about links between the two men. Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents many of Epstein's victims, said on Monday that Andrew has a duty to provide any evidence that could help investigators understand how Epstein was able to abuse so many women for so long, and who else might have been involved in his crimes.
But the last time Andrew tried to answer questions about his friendship with Epstein it ended in disaster.
It didn't end well
After the 2019 interview with Maitlis, Andrew was pilloried for offering unbelievable explanations for his continued contact with Epstein following the financier's 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, and for failing to show empathy for the victims.
Last fall, King Charles III stripped Andrew of his royal titles, including the right to be called a prince, as he tried to insulate the monarchy from the continuing revelations about his younger brother's relationship with Epstein, which have tarnished the royal family for more than a decade. The former prince is now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Andrew has also been ordered to vacate Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle that has been his home for more than a decade.
Good luck with asking him to testify
Mountbatten-Windsor has little to lose by ignoring calls for him to testify, and U.S. authorities will find it hard to compel him to appear before Congress, said lawyer Mark Stephens, who handles international and complex cases at Howard Kennedy in London.
“There will be huge pressure and calls for him to (testify), but I don't think that even if he gets there, even if he gives evidence, it's going to reveal anything meaningful,” Stephens said. “I would fully expect him to take the fifth, as Americans say, the privilege against self-incrimination. And so I don't think, beyond his name, he's going answer any of the questions either by turning up or not turning up.”
Documents released on Friday suggest that Epstein sought to arrange a date between Mountbatten-Windsor and a “beautiful'' 26-year-old Russian woman, and that the former prince offered Epstein dinner at Buckingham Palace. They also revealed emails sent by Sarah Ferguson, Mountbatten-Windsor's ex-wife, in which she called Epstein a “legend'' and “the brother I have always wished for.''
Documents do not show wrongdoing by many of those named; their appearance in the files reflects Epstein's extremely wide reach.
Not sharing what he knows
Mountbatten-Windsor has previously demonstrated caution about talking to U.S. authorities.
After he stepped away from royal duties in 2019, Mountbatten-Windsor announced that he was willing to help “any appropriate law enforcement agency” with its investigation into Epstein.
But documents released last year showed how 10 months of negotiations between Mountbatten-Windsor's lawyers and federal prosecutors failed to secure his testimony.
Attorneys for the king's brother ultimately rejected proposals for their client to be directly interviewed by the prosecutors, either in person or by video. Instead, they proposed that he give his answers in writing, something they said was perfectly acceptable in British courts.
Finally, on Sept. 23, 2020, the prosecutors gave up on the idea of securing a voluntary interview and said they planned to start the formal process of asking the British courts to compel Andrew's testimony under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the two countries. There is no indication that interview ever took place.
Allred said the testimony is important for Epstein's victims.
While Mountbatten-Windsor has said he doesn't know anything about Epstein's crimes, the documents released by the Justice Department show that he has at least some understanding of the parties Epstein hosted, and how he used young women to influence his network of wealthy, powerful friends, Allred told the BBC.
“He's not the one who should decide whether he knows anything that could help in the investigation,” she said. “I am saying it's not too late, and he does have information that he can share that may help them.”
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
