Is the Andrew formerly known as Prince still a royal? I suppose he must be. Mr Mountbatten-Windsor may have lost all his titles, but he’s still eighth in line to the throne (though it would take a plotline as fiendish as Dennis Price’s in black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets to grant him the accession).
Watching Andrew is increasingly like watching a poker player holding what has become obvious to all is a losing hand. It’s only a matter of time before he folds. And in Andrew’s case, folding could mean just one thing – extradition to the United States. Don’t take my word for it. Respected writer and historian Andrew Lownie, author of this year’s meticulously researched best-seller The Fall of the House of York, is quietly certain of two things.
One, that Andrew WILL be extradited to the US, and two, that he’ll end up staying there longer than he’d like – behind bars. If this comes to pass, it would make him the first member of the Royal Family to be imprisoned since Charles I in1649.
While other royals have occasionally found themselves in legal hot water, they’ve resulted in fines, driving bans, or out-of-court settlements, not imprisonment.
Here’s Andrew’s potential problem. At least one surviving victim of his ghastly friend, paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, alleges that the former Duke had sex with trafficked young girls in addition to the late Virginia Guiffre.
If the FBI decides there is a case to answer, they may seek to extradite Andrew to America. Britain of course has an extradition treaty with the US and Andrew, now a commoner like the rest of us, would have no special protection.
It came as no surprise to anyone that Thursday evening’s deadline for Andrew to speak to a US government committee about Epstein expired without a peep from the former prince.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating Epstein’s crimes and his wider sex trafficking network. Andrew was given until November 20 to respond.
Legally he wasn’t obliged to, but it’s difficult to imagine why he would. Andrew’s track record for interviews about Epstein is not exactly a glowing one – Newsnight was a car-crash – and his lawyers must have been concerned that he might incriminate himself.
But now that President Trump has authorised the US Justice Department to release everything it’s got on Epstein – thousands of unredacted emails, documents and photos – all bets are off.
What more will we learn about Andrew, Epstein and those trafficked girls? Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor vehemently denies all and any wrongdoing. At some point, he may find himself having to do that, in person, in front of ‘the feds’. What a prospect.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
