US prosecutors have filed an official MLA ordering Prince Andrew to come forward as a witness in their ongoing Jeffrey Epstein investigation. But, according to various sources, Prince Andrew is reluctant to talk to the US prosecutors face to face, royal experts believe that he wants to provide evidence via a written statement.
It’s a public butting of heads that's been ongoing ever since the official investigation into Jeffrey Epstein began. US investigators claim that the Prince has been most uncooperative despite the prince’s prostrations to the opposite, he even cites three different occasions on which he says has offered to help them.
According to the Daily Mail the prince's lawyers confirmed yesterday that Andrew was indeed offering to provide a 'witness statement' while US attorney Geoffrey Berman has made it clear he wishes to conduct a face to face interview with him. The last time Andrew did a live face to face interview on the subject was a BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, it was an unmitigated PR disaster for Andrew and led to his resignation from public life just a few days later.
Andrew has always maintained his innocence throughout the unfolding scandal, saying he never witnessed or suspected Epstein's sex crimes.
Meanwhile, the damning documentary Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, the four-part series on the life of the disgraced American financier and convicted sex offender premiered on Netflix May 27. It did not show Prince Andrew in a good light.
In the documentary 70-year-old Steve Sculley, formerly employed by Epstein to work on the island's telecommunication system, says he saw the prince with Virginia Roberts Giuffre on the island.
He states that one day he was repairing a phone on the front porch when he looked over and saw a couple near the pool. He goes on to say that he had been told there was a very special guest on the island and when he saw the couple stand up he realised it was Prince Andrew with a young blond girl who he later realised after seeing pictures of her, was Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre. He says on-screen with absolute conviction, "He(Prince Andrew) was grabbing her butt and grinding against her.”
Although the US Department of Justice is desperate to get to the truth, Donald Trump's Attorney General William Barr said last night that extradition was not on the cards.
