A US lawyer representing some of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims has said that the Duke of York had been an ‘enabler’ of the billionaire paedophile’s crimes.
Lisa Bloom, 58, is preparing legal action to force Prince Andrew, 59, to give a statement to a judge over his relationship with the convicted paedophile.
It follows a disastrous week for the Duke, in which the public fallout from his ‘car crash’ Newsnight interview last weekend has continued to build.
His charities have abandoned him, his Pitch@Palace project has been kicked out of Buckingham Palace and he is set to receive a dressing down from Prince Charles.
Now, Ms Bloom, who represents five of Epstein’s alleged victims, has said the Prince should co-operate in full with the authorities in the US and ‘permit his staff to do the same’.
Lisa Bloom (pictured), who represents five of Epstein’s alleged victims, has said the Prince co-operate in full with the authorities in the US and ‘permit his staff to do the same’
Prince Andrew quit Royal duties just hours after being seen horse riding with the Queen in Windsor Great Park as he turned to the Queen for support
She said, in an interview with The Times: ‘The way we look at it is, if Prince Andrew saw something, and surely he did, because everybody who spent time with Jeffrey Epstein says there were girls coming in and out all the time […] had he shown the basic human decency to report his friend, other women could have been spared being sexually abused.
‘This could have been stopped and instead, because there were so many enablers around Jeffrey Epstein, and apparently Prince Andrew was one of them, this just went on and on.’
Ms Bloom added that if the Duke won’t testify voluntarily, she will get a court order requiring him to give evidence.
‘I hope we don’t have to subpoena him,’ she said. ‘We certainly could […] of we determine that he has relevant information to our cases.
‘I would fly to the UK and take his deposition. This happens all the time […] it’s only unusual because it’s Prince Andrew.’
Lisa Bloom, 58, (left) is preparing legal action to force Prince Andrew, 59, (right) to give a statement over his relationship with the convicted paedophile
Prince Andrew (pictured during his car crash interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis) was told to step down from royal duties
Ms Bloom said that if the Queen’s son refused to fly over to the States to answer questions, it could lead to a ‘diplomatic situation’ between the UK and US.
She told BBC Breakfast earlier this week: ‘I, as an attorney, have the right to subpoena witnesses to come and take depositions.
‘It’s not going to be easy to subpoena someone like Prince Andrew, he’s obviously not walking down the street where a process server can just hand him a piece of paper, it’s a lot more complicated.
‘If he refused to come we may have a diplomatic situation between [the UK] and [the US]. I hope it doesn’t come to that.
‘I take him at his word that he says he is going to co-operate and I hope that’s what’s going to happen.’
When asked if FBI agents could be forced to jet to the UK to interview him, Ms Bloom said: ‘They certainly could and should’.
‘We believe nobody is above the law and everybody should have to answer questions.
‘We think it’s a positive step that he says he will co-operate with law enforcement. Is he going to fly to the United States and voluntarily meet with our FBI?
‘Will he submit evidence like emails and calendars and travel logs? Will he allow his staff to come and answer questions about his travels and where he was and what he saw? A lot remains to be seen.’
The duke denies meeting Virginia (left, together in 2001) and suggested this photo could be fake in his extraordinary and explosive BBC interview (pictured, right, Andrew and Epstein in New York after Epstein had finished his prison sentence for sex offences)
Ms Bloom’s mother and fellow lawyer Gloria Allred, who also represents victims of the US financier, said Andrew’s position on assisting the authorities was not clear.
She told the BBC: ‘Is he insisting that he be served with a subpoena to testify, or is he willing to speak to law enforcement without being legally required to do so?
‘My clients who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein have spoken to law enforcement without being ‘required’ to do so.’
It came after Andrew issued a statement confirming he was ‘stepping down’ from public duties in the wake of a deepening crisis over his friendship with Epstein.
In the bombshell statement, the prince claimed that he would be ‘willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency’.
Last night, it emerged his Pitch@Palace project is to be kicked out of Buckingham Palace in a final humiliation at the end of a catastrophic week.
The latest humiliation for the Duke of York comes as Barclays ended its funding for his Dragons’ Den-style Pitch@Palace, which he also resigned from after stepping down from Royal duties.
It follows days of speculation about his future with the successful private initiative he founded for start-ups, which he’d hoped to continue running despite the backlash he faces over his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew appears to have bowed to pressure and stepped down, with the Telegraph reporting the move, which came a day after one sponsor said his plans to continue leading Pitch were ‘not tenable’.
He quit just hours after being seen horse riding with the Queen in Windsor Great Park as the duke turned to the Queen for support. It is the first time they’ve been spotted together since she told him to step down from public duties after discussing it with Prince Charles.
Andrew (pictured earlier this year) was expected to travel to the Middle East this weekend as part of his Pitch project but has cancelled plans following reported pressure from his family
His resignation comes after Royal advisers suggested that a trip to Bahrain as guest of honour at one of the initiative’s events.
There were also claims last night that as well as Pitch moving out of Buckingham Palace, the prince may even lose his small private office there – funded by the Queen – as he is no longer a working royal for the ‘foreseeable future’.
Andrew occupies a small suite of rooms in the palace, including two small offices, a meeting room and a bedroom he uses when staying overnight. Two sources said yesterday the teams working on Pitch and iDEA would be moving out, although one claimed it was a ‘natural progression’ because of the initiatives’ rapid growth.
Andrew’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk, who played a key role in persuading him to do the interview, has been shunted from her role to become the chief executive of Pitch. But sources close to the prince were keen to play down claims that his small team of personal staff – including his private secretary, a PA, a finance executive and an equerry – will also be kicked out of the palace.
‘Pitch and iDEA were always going to move out but his private office will remain here,’ they said.
‘It’s only a very small team anyway but it will just be that little bit smaller because there will be less to do for the foreseeable future.’
Prince Andrew’s accuser to twist the knife: BBC Panorama interview with Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘sex slave’ Virginia Roberts WILL be broadcast on December 2
The deepening crisis surrounding Prince Andrew is set to intensify after it was revealed a BBC interview with Virginia Roberts will air next week
The deepening crisis surrounding Prince Andrew is set to intensify after it was revealed a BBC interview with Virginia Roberts will air next week.
Ms Roberts, who claims she was sex trafficked by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein into sleeping with the Duke of York on three occasions, will speak out on Monday.
The 35-year-old, who says she had intercourse with the prince while aged 17, spoke to Panorama before the Royal appeared on Saturday’s Newsnight.
Ms Roberts, now known as Ms Giuffre after marrying, claims that billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her to London from the US.
She was said to be furious that her interview – which was filmed three weeks before Andrew’s Newsnight chat aired – had not appeared on TV earlier.
A source close to her said she ‘made no bones’ about the Duke’s denial during her sit-down with Panorama, in which she is said to demand he comes clean.
The source said the her legal team have now idea why the Panorama interview has not aired.
They claim that every broadcaster to have interviewed Ms Giuffre has aired them ‘almost immediately’ but the BBC hasn’t.
But BBC sources says that the interview forms part of a larger investigation and it is for that reason that it has not yet aired.
The initiative will now be known only as ‘Pitch’ and will continue to be run by the Duke’s former private secretary Amanda Thirsk, sources told The Daily Telegraph.
The Prince of Wales will be fuming with his brother after the bungled BBC Newsnight interview and his decision to invite his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, to Buckingham Palace yesterday, experts on Charles have told MailOnline.
Prince Charles is set to fly back to the UK from his royal tour on Monday, when he is expected to read his younger brother the riot act.
A royal aide yesterday confirmed that Beatrice and Eugenie will continue with a limited number of royal duties as before.
‘The Princesses do undertake a small number of royal engagements each year, as and when asked, and that will continue,’ a Buckingham Palace spokesman said.
So we will see them on the Palace balcony after Trooping The Colour, at a couple of garden parties and the occasional evening reception. But that, it seems, will be it.
Andrew’s years of lobbying for the ‘blood Princesses’ to have a greater role in The Firm — something that brought him into conflict with Prince Charles and his vision of a slimmed-down monarchy — has finally been thwarted.
High profile business sponsors KPMG, Standard Chartered and Inmarsat, a British satellite telecommunications company, have all said they will not be renewing their financial support for Pitch.
The beleaguered royal also faces the prospect of Virginia Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre, who alleges she had under-age sex with the duke, being interviewed on BBC’s Panorama programme early in December.
And the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) became the latest organisation to confirm Andrew would no longer be its figurehead, following the controversy around his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a statement, an RPO spokesperson said: ‘Following HRH The Duke of York’s announcement that he will be stepping back from public life, management representatives of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) met with Prince Andrew’s office on Thursday afternoon.
‘At a subsequent meeting of the RPO Board, it was decided that the Orchestra should part company with its patron, with immediate effect.
‘The RPO would like to express its gratitude to His Royal Highness for his support of the Orchestra over the past 15 years.’
Andrew was expected to travel to the Middle East this weekend as part of his Pitch project but has cancelled plans following reported pressure from his family.
It also emerged today that Prince Andrew’s suggestion that sex is a ‘positive act’ for a man, so therefore difficult to forget, is said to have left Meghan Markle ‘troubled’.
A source, described as ‘close to The Duchess of Sussex’ spoke to The Daily Telegraph criticising his BBC Newsnight interview and describing Meghan’s reaction to seeing it.
After a week of catastrophic headlines for Prince Andrew, in which his charities have abandoned him, Meghan’s camp hit out at the Duke.
‘The interview left everyone watching it wanting to curl under a table. It just got worse and worse and worse,’ a source close to the Duchess of Sussex’s team said.
The Duke of York, 59, made the comments during a disastrous Newsnight interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis last weekend.
He was asked whether he’d ever had sex with Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, or any other woman trafficked by convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
To which he responded that he can’t have done, because to have sex with someone is a ‘positive act’ and therefore is ‘very difficult to forget’.
His appearance on BBC Two, seemingly designed put an end to questions over his relationship with Epstein, has led to humiliation for the Duke.