Years after Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes first shocked the world, the controversy surrounding his links to the British royal family continues to cast a long shadow over the monarchy.Historians and investigators say the reason the story has not faded away is simple.
There are still many unanswered questions about Epstein’s powerful connections, and important records that might shed light on them may no longer exist.Efforts to understand Epstein’s ties to the royal orbit have been repeatedly hampered by missing documents, says royal historian and biographer Andrew Looney.“One of the problems with research in this area is that a lot of the material…once it got into the hands of the British government, it appears to have been destroyed,” Looney told The Daily Beast Podcast host Joanna Coles.
They added: “For example, Buckingham Palace’s tree trunks, which people had asked to see – first – were withheld on national security grounds, and then were said to have been destroyed.”The controversy is closely linked to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose long association with Epstein has become one of the most damaging scandals to affect the royal family in decades.But Looney believes the story goes beyond the royal scandal involving Epstein and the former Duke of York.
“The tentacles have spread widely in many different countries, and my personal feeling is that this is actually a national security story,” Looney said.“About how easy it is for the intelligence services to infiltrate Britain using the royal family because they have no oversight and some of them are very greedy.”According to Looney, the ongoing release of documents and testimony related to Epstein’s network has continued to expand the scope of the investigation.“Every day brings new discoveries and new connections,” he said.“I’m definitely getting a lot of people coming forward with their stories, especially in the last few weeks.”It is believed the full picture could take years to emerge as authorities work to deal with the large amount of material linked to Epstein.“There’s obviously a lot of material in the Epstein files that seems to me fairly conclusive about what he did,” he said.“But they may want to question a whole series of people, and it will take some time to bring that case.”The scandal also sparked political debate over Mountbatten-Windsor’s future position in the royal line of succession.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently called for his removal from the line of succession following allegations that he shared confidential materials with Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested last month on suspicion of misconduct in public office.Andrew has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and did not respond to requests for comment on the latest allegations.Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Carney said the former prince’s actions were “regrettable” and should lead to his removal from the succession.“Although he has made significant progress, the point of principle still stands,” Carney said.In Britain, ministers confirmed that the government is considering legislation to remove Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession. Defense Minister Luke Pollard said the move would be “the right thing to do”, regardless of the outcome of the police investigation.