Prince Andrew is ‘terrified’ to visit the US in case he is arrested amid calls for a fresh FBI probe into the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, sources claimed last night.
The disgraced Duke of York has barely left Britain in nearly six years, with insiders claiming he fears arrest, civil lawsuits, or being subpoenaed if he travels abroad.
The 64-year-old’s anxiety has only deepened following the release of court documents that have sparked demands for a fresh criminal probe into Epstein’s network.
Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director has pledged to ‘do everything’ to expose those who enabled the late paedophile, while lawyers representing Epstein’s victims are urging the UK government to hand over Prince Andrew for questioning.
A close friend of the shamed royal told The Sun: ‘He is terrified if he goes to America he could be arrested, face civil action or be subpoenaed.
‘He used to be Air Miles Andy but he will never risk going to America again.’
The source added that Andrew has kept an unusually low profile, only leaving Britain once since the scandal erupted – to Bahrain, where he has close friends.
Spencer Kuvin, a US lawyer representing several Epstein victims, told the newspaper the British Royal Family should be ashamed and sever all remaining ties with the prince.
The Duke of York, 64, has barely left Britain in nearly six years, with sources claiming he fears arrest, civil lawsuits, or being subpoenaed if he travels abroad
Andrew’s anxiety has only deepened following the release of court documents that have sparked demands for a fresh criminal probe into Jeffrey Epstein’s network
Buckingham Palace have been approached for comment.
Andrew has always denied allegations of sexual misconduct but paid millions in an out-of-court settlement to Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre in 2022.
In 2020, the FBI asked the Home Office for assistance in questioning Andrew, but the investigation was put on hold last year.
However, fresh scrutiny has emerged after High Court documents last week revealed an email exchange between Andrew and Epstein in February 2011, in which the prince wrote: ‘We’ll play some more soon.’
The Duke of York sent a bombshell email pledging to ‘keep in close touch’, despite claiming he had ceased all contact with the American financier weeks earlier, it has emerged.
The new evidence suggests Andrew may have lied in his infamous Newsnight interview.
He insisted to Emily Maitlis in the disastrous 2019 grilling at Buckingham Palace that he had stopped seeing Epstein in early December 2010, when they were photographed walking through New York’s Central Park.
The Duke said: ‘I never had any contact with him from that day forward.’
Yet sickening emails have emerged demolishing this claim, showing that in February 2011 Andrew wrote to his paedophile friend: ‘Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!’
Kuvin insisted that Epstein’s victims still want justice for everyone involved.
‘No one should be above the law, no matter how powerful they are,’ he said.
It comes after Andrew was seen as a ‘valuable communication channel’ by China, according to newly released court papers.
The documents, reviewed the The Sunday Times, claimed that a senior aide to the Duke of York was questioned by MI5 about his ‘clandestine’ relationship with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
The well-known photograph showing the Duke of York next to Virginia Giuffre (pictured in 2001)
It recently emerged that an aide to the Duke told the alleged Chinese spy that the Newsnight interview had been ‘hugely ill-advised’
Andrew and Yang first met in 2013 at a reception hosted by the former head of McLaren during the Shanghai Grand Prix.
Yang, 50, a former Chinese government official, reportedly became Andrew’s confidant and his firm Hampton Group secured links to Andrew’s organisation Pitch@Palace.
The Home Office, under the orders of then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, banned Yang from the UK in March 2023 on national security grounds.
UK authorities claimed that Yang developed an ‘unusual degree of trust’ with Andrew and formed relationships with British politicians to be ‘leveraged’ by China. Yang denies wrongdoing or being a spy.
The new documents were released on Friday by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after Yang failed to overturn Braverman’s ban.
British intelligence officials suspect that Yang is affiliated with the United Front Work Department, a Chinese organisation involved in political interference abroad.
Authorities stopped Yang at Heathrow airport under counterterrorism laws in November 2021, seizing his mobile phone, laptop and iPad seized.
Much of the evidence against him was acquired from his devices, which the Home Office has claimed supports their decision that Yang was a spy for the Chinese Communist Party.
Among the evidence found in his phone was a crib sheet for a planned call with Andrew, The Times reported, citing the court papers.
The sheet reportedly claimed that Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang viewed the Duke of York as a ‘valuable communication channel’.
