A Royal Arrest and Global Fallout Over Epstein
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What led to the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor?
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From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. In the week since the Justice Department released millions of documents in the Epstein files, executives have lost their companies, lawyers have resigned, but it was unclear who, if anyone, would face any kind of legal consequence. That changed on Thursday, when Andrew Mountbatten, the former Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was arrested in England. But the former prince may never face legal accountability for many of the criminal allegations that have dogged him for years. Today, my colleagues Michael Scheer and Nicholas Confessore explain why the prince was arrested, how the blast radius for this scandal has widened, and why, to many people, consequences still feel so elusive.
It's Friday, February 20th. So, Michael, we are here to talk to you today because it feels like arguably one of the biggest shoes to drop has happened in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. And specifically, we're talking about Andrew Mountbatten, formerly known as Prince Andrew of the British royal family. He was arrested. Tell us what happened and what he was arrested for.
You're right. It was really an explosive moment here in Britain where the public has been following Andrew's travails for a long time. Now, at eight o'clock in the morning, police arrived at the Sandringham estate, which is a country estate favored by the king and many members of his family. And they arrested Andrew. They arrested the former prince, took him into custody under suspicion of what they called misconduct in public office.
And what does that mean?
What that basically means is that when you were serving in public office, you did something wrong. You broke the law as part of your duties, your official duties. Now, the police did not provide any details of the investigation, but the arrest came after reports suggested that Andrew may have shared confidential information with Mr. Epstein while serving as the British trade envoy, which he held from 2001 to 2011.
All of this feels kind of astonishing when you consider a couple of things. One, how long there have been accusations of sexual misconduct against former Prince Andrew. And number two, how long we've known that he's associated with Jeffrey Epstein. Like the fact that he is being arrested for potentially leaking confidential information, that kind of feels almost like going after Al Capone for tax evasion.
You're totally right. It is pretty remarkable. And the allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior have been in the ether in the public consciousness for more than a decade. I mean, it dates back to when Virginia Giuffre accused Prince Andrew at the time in 2015 of having been forced to have sex with him on three separate occasions in London, New York, and on Jeffrey Epstein's private island in the Caribbean between 2001 and 2002. That was when she was just 17 years old. So that's literally how long the public has been aware of the serious sexual allegations against him. It was four years later in 2019 that Jeffrey Epstein was finally arrested in New York on sex trafficking charges that involved both the accusations by Virginia Giuffre, but of course other women who then came forward.
That case, as everyone knows now, didn't go forward because Jeffrey Epstein died in jail. Right. That same year that Jeffrey Epstein dies, Andrew decides that it's time to try to rehabilitate his image. There had been this photo, very famous photo, that had been seen all over the world of him with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, his accuser. You know, he decides to sit down with an interviewer from the BBC to try to clear his name and sort of once and for all end all of this endless speculation about what he had or had not done.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What led to the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor?
0:01–7:55
2
What allegations have been made against Prince Andrew?
7:55–11:02
3
How has the royal family reacted to Andrew's arrest?
11:02–16:11
4
What is the significance of the Epstein files release?
16:11–20:04
5
Who are the notable figures affected by the Epstein scandal?
20:04–24:42
6
What consequences do former associates of Epstein face?
24:42–28:47
7
How does public perception influence accountability in this case?
28:47–34:52