A leading US politician has criticised British authorities for failing to share information from their investigations into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with America, putting the Special Relationship at risk.
Republican James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, hit out at police forces across the UK who are probing the former prince’s dealings with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Criticism from the House Oversight Committee
In a new interview following the latest Epstein report by his committee, Mr Comer also criticised American authorities, admitting: “The big conclusion – which is a surprise to no-one – is that our government failed the victims and the question we’ve been unable to answer is why.”
He added: “The biggest theory would be that he (Epstein) was an asset to our intelligence community or another foreign intelligence community.” He stressed that, in private committee hearings, US agencies including the CIA have flatly denied this.
Mr Comer said: “We were anxiously waiting to see what happened with Britain because remember, when Prince Andrew (sic) was arrested (in February this year), he wasn’t arrested for sex crimes, he was arrested for potential (misconduct in a public office). So we were hoping that the United Kingdom would come out with information from their investigation. But that never happened.”
Special Relationship Under Strain
Mr Comer’s criticism, made on the US cable news show Jessee Watters Tonight, was echoed by the programme’s host, who declared: “We hope there is some information sharing because they say we have a special relationship. It should be more special than that.”
The latest Epstein report comes almost a year to the day that Mr Comer and his fellow members made a written request to interview Mr Mountbatten-Windsor via video, with his lawyer sitting beside him if he chose. The former Duke of York did not reply to that letter but has strenuously denied any wrongdoing in his association with Epstein.
UK Police Investigations
Detectives at Thames Valley Police are investigating allegations of misconduct in public office and trying to ascertain if the former prince shared sensitive, confidential Government and trade reports with Epstein during his time as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.
Other forces with active investigations around claims of child trafficking and sex abuse include Scotland, Surrey, Essex and the West Midlands. Norfolk and Bedfordshire say they have uncovered no evidence to warrant further investigation but are “monitoring” any fresh information that comes to light.
Meanwhile, the Met Police are focusing their investigation on Lord Mandelson, who was forced to resign as Britain’s Ambassador to Washington last year after his name and images appeared multiple times across millions of pages of documents on the Epstein case released by America’s Department of Justice. The Met is being aided by Wiltshire Police while West Midlands Police are “assessing” information relating to flights in and out of Birmingham Airport that also appeared in the Epstein files.
