Chapter 1: What sparked the recent speculation surrounding Prince Andrew?
The arrest of the former Prince Andrew last week has ignited a firestorm of speculation. Will he face charges? Will more people be named and charged from the investigation of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein? And will Epstein's victims ever see full accountability? Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt.
Chapter 2: Who is testifying in the closed-door hearings related to Epstein?
I'm producer and host Zuley Kanethu. Today is Friday, February 27, 2026. Here to help us unpack some of the many issues at play here is USA Today White House correspondent Bart Jansen. Thank you so much for joining me today, Bart.
Thanks for having me.
Chapter 3: What questions are lawmakers asking Hillary Clinton about Epstein?
I want to start with the closed-door hearings that are happening with regards to the Epstein files. Who's testifying? What might we learn from these hearings?
Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State and First Lady, is giving a closed-door deposition to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee up in Chippewa, the city in New York where she lives, on Thursday. And
Chapter 4: What are the implications of Andrew and Mandelson's arrests?
The lawmakers want to ask her basically why Epstein helped raise money for her family foundation and why Epstein attended her daughter Chelsea's wedding, among other things. And they basically want to get to the heart of how Epstein was able to cultivate this circle of high power, high profile figures from around the world as he simultaneously allegedly ran a network of sex trafficking.
In addition, former President Bill Clinton, Hillary's husband, of course, is set to give a deposition on Friday to the same committee also in Chappaqua.
Well, I mean, you mentioned around the world, just looking across the pond.
Chapter 5: How is the U.S. Justice Department handling the Epstein investigation?
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested last week on suspicion of sharing confidential information with Jeffrey Epstein while serving as Britain's trade envoy. And Peter Mandelson, the UK's former ambassador to the United States, was arrested this week on similar charges. So based on the Epstein documents released so far, what do we know about their involvement with Epstein?
Well, their names and in Andrew's case, many pictures have been released among those three million documents that the Justice Department has released under a new law that Congress passed that President Trump signed. calling for the release of all Epstein materials.
Chapter 6: What new revelations have emerged about Epstein's connections?
Well, they're still muddling through how much of that file is going to be released. Right now, it's somewhere in the vicinity of half. There are still millions of documents that have not been publicly released. But among the documents are pictures of Andrew visiting Epstein. And in one provocative picture, he is on the floor of a room bending over a woman who is lying on the floor.
Chapter 7: What do Epstein's victims want from the ongoing investigations?
What's interesting about the arrest on suspicion of criminal charges is that they deal with confidential government records, both his and Mandelson's, rather than sexual allegations. So part of what investigators are looking for
as they look through all the documents that have been released, and in the case of lawmakers who can look at the documents that are still under seal at the Justice Department, is whether there are other co-conspirators that could potentially face criminal charges in the sex trafficking that Epstein was accused of conducting.
So for right now, Andrews and Mandelson's criminal exposure is more toward confidential government records, and we'll have to see whether that leads toward any sexual allegations.
Chapter 8: Will the Justice Department release more documents related to Epstein?
Well, that's an interesting contrast. And bringing it back home to the U.S., another interesting contrast is how the Department of Justice is handling the investigations compared to the U.K., The Department of Justice has not announced any new charges or investigations. So how do you think that approach compares or contrasts with how we're seeing things unfold in Europe?
Some lawmakers have been critical about how the Justice Department has handled this case. Representative Thomas Massey, a Republican from Kentucky, and Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, joined forces and forced the release of Epstein files because the Justice Department had said last July they had released all that they were going to and that's it.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that they didn't want to release the names of any of the women who have accused Epstein of abuse. They didn't want to jeopardize any potential future criminal investigations. So that was it. In response, these lawmakers and what wound up being strong majorities in all of Congress approved a law that required the release of the documents.
About three million documents have been released and we're still waiting for millions of pages more. The department has said it has completed its review and is not expecting to release more. And President Trump has said the country should move on.
But lawmakers and women who have accused Epstein of abuse continue to press for the release of all the documents that don't name those women and that wouldn't jeopardize criminal cases.
Another name has come up in those files. Commerce Secretary Howard Letnick acknowledged visiting Epstein's private island with his family, but he said he saw no inappropriate behavior. What more are you hearing about that?
Well, Nancy Mace walking into the deposition with Hillary Clinton, Mace, a Republican from South Carolina and one of the key lawmakers who helped get that legislation approved to release the records, has said she is going to be asking Hillary Clinton to. about Howard Lutnick.
Lutnick has testified before a Senate committee saying he has nothing to hide, that he didn't see anything bad happening at the island when he had lunch there with his family in 2012. But Mace says that she has an email that suggests that there might have been some sort of message between Clinton and Lutnick, and she's going to be asking about it.
So we're going to be hearing more about Lutnick in the future.
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