Royal Family should pay compensation to Epstein victims, says top Democrat

MINNEAPOLIS – The Royal Family should be “ashamed and horrified” over the latest revelations about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and pay compensation to the victims, a US Congressman involved in the inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein has told The i Paper.

Buckingham Palace is reeling from the latest disclosures from the so-called Epstein files – including a photo showing the former prince lying across the laps of women at Sandringham, and an apparent request to Ghislaine Maxwell to find “new inappropriate friends”.

Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California, said Epstein’s victims should be given financial reparations.

“The Royal Family should be ashamed and horrified. They should be compensating each of the working class girls who were victims of the Epstein class,” he said, highlighting the fact that many of the more than 1,200 victims identified by the US Department of Justice were considered to be poor and vulnerable.

Among the most serious claims in the files are records in which the former prince is explicitly accused of engaging in sexual conduct with a victim of Epstein.

The allegation appears in material gathered by US investigators as part of the broader Epstein and Maxwell inquiries. It reiterates claims made previously by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers.

Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles earlier this year by King Charles. The former prince has always denied any wrongdoing in relation to the scandal. However, in 2022 he reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre, who claimed she was forced to have sex with him on three occasions, an allegation he has always denied. The settlement was said to be worth around £12m, with Mountbatten-Windsor not accepting any wrongdoing.

Giuffre took her own life in April, aged 41.

Earlier this year, Khanna requested that Mountbatten-Windsor appear before the House Oversight Committee, saying he would “expect any decently minded person to comply with that request”.

At the time, Khanna told The Guardian that “the public deserves to know who was abusing women and young girls alongside Epstein”.

A flurry of emails and photographs related to Epstein and his former associates, including Mountbatten-Windsor, have been seen by the public in recent weeks, after Congress voted to release them, and Donald Trump signed the legislation, despite earlier pushing back against the idea.

Epstein was dound dead in a New York jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. Ofiicals ruled he took his own life.

On the campaign trail, Trump said that if he were returned to the White House, he would quickly release all of the materials, which many of his loyal supporters believed would contain a “client’s list” detailing the names of powerful Democrats and others who had conspired with Epstein in the trafficking of girls and young women.

However, there was outcry earlier this year when Trump’s Justice Department announced that having examined the files, they had found no such list and did not think there should be an additional investigation. The announcement was seen as a sellout by previously loyal Trump supporters such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, while Democrats claimed the President was going out of his way to bury materials he knew would be harmful to himself.

Trump, who was a friend of Epstein in the 1980s and 1990s before they fell out, has always denied any wrongdoing.

In addition to the photograph of Mountbatten-Windsor lying on the laps of women, the Justice Department has released an email he apparently sent to Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 after being found guilty of helping him sexually abuse and traffic minors. The email requests that she find him “some new inappropriate friends”.

While Mountbatten-Windsor has yet to comment on the latest releases, the email was signed A, and claimed they were at a “Balmoral Summer Camp”.

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The King announced earlier this year that Mountbatten-Windsor was to be stripped of his status as a member of the Royal Family, and would be evicted from his royal residence and move to a private property on the Sandringham estate, which is owned by the monarch and is not part of the Crown Estate.

In his statement, Charles said: “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”

There was no immediate response from Buckingham Palace to inquiries from The i Paper.