Prince Andrew arrested over leaked emails from Epstein files

Arrest follows email revelations from Epstein files

Prince Andrew was arrested Thursday morning by Thames Valley Police on suspicion of mishandling official government documents. The arrest is directly linked to emails released in the January 2024 trove of Jeffrey Epstein files.

He was released under investigation Thursday evening. The arrest is unrelated to the prior sexual abuse allegations made by Virginia Giuffre.

Emails show sharing of confidential briefings

The investigation appears to center on emails that show Andrew, while serving as a UK trade envoy, forwarding sensitive government information to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

One key email from November 2010 shows Andrew forwarding country reports from a government-funded Asia trip to Epstein within five minutes of receiving them. Epstein was a convicted sex offender at the time.

Further emails from the files reveal more potential breaches:

• On Christmas Eve 2010, Andrew appeared to email Epstein a confidential briefing on investment opportunities in UK-funded reconstruction in Afghanistan's Helmand Province.
• In February 2011, an email suggests Andrew encouraged Epstein to invest in a private equity firm he had recently visited.

Police investigation goes beyond public files

Thames Valley Police did not act solely on the emails seen by the public. To build a case, detectives have pursued multiple lines of inquiry.

They requested further emails and documents from the UK government and Buckingham Palace. The palace stated last Monday it would "support" the police investigation.

Detectives also conducted their own review of the three million documents in the Epstein files, likely with assistance from the UK's National Crime Agency to obtain unredacted copies from US authorities.

What happens next in the case

Andrew has not been charged. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to his association with Epstein and did not respond to BBC questions about the January file release.

The 2022 out-of-court financial settlement with Virginia Giuffre included no admission of wrongdoing from Andrew.

Police and Crown Prosecution Service lawyers must now decide if there is sufficient evidence to charge the King's brother. This decision could take weeks.

If charged, the case would be prosecuted as R v Mountbatten-Windsor—the Crown against Prince Andrew.