Key moments leading to Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest over his links to Epstein

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Key moments leading to Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest over his links to Epstein

2026-02-20 04:31 Last Updated At：04:40

LONDON (AP) — Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office following a raft of disclosures related to his relationship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He was released around 11 hours later under investigation, which means he has not been charged nor exonerated.

The man formerly known as Prince Andrew has for years faced a series of allegations over his contacts with the disgraced financier, most recently in the wake of the release of more than 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein from the U.S. Justice Department.

Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, is accused of sharing confidential trade information with the disgraced financier. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Following are some key moments in Mountbatten-Windsor's fall from grace as King Charles III 's younger brother:

Andrew is forced to resign as Britain’s special trade envoy following the first reports of his links to Epstein, who was convicted and jailed three years earlier for sex offenses involving a minor.

Epstein is arrested for a second time on charges of sex trafficking and later dies by suicide in a New York jail cell. The news focuses public attention on allegations that the then-prince had sex with at least one underage teenager trafficked by Epstein. Andrew denies the allegations.

Andrew attempts to contain the flood of criticism by agreeing to an on-camera grilling by BBC reporter Emily Maitlis. The interview backfires when Andrew defends his relationship with Epstein, fails to show empathy for his victims and offers explanations of his behavior that many people find hard to believe. Andrew says he broke off contact with Epstein in December 2010, a date that will come back to haunt him.

Prince Andrew announces he will step back from public duties “for the foreseeable future” because of his association with a notorious American sex offender.

Andrew agrees to settle a New York civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was 17. While Andrew didn’t admit to any of Giuffre’s allegations, he acknowledged that she had suffered as a victim of sexual abuse. Legal experts estimate that the undisclosed settlement cost Andrew as much as $10 million. The source of the funds has remained murky ever since.

Virginia Giuffre dies by suicide in Australia, where she had lived since about 2002.

British newspapers reveal that Andrew sent an email to Epstein on Feb. 28, 2011, more than two months after he had told BBC he had cut off all contact with his one-time friend. Andrew wrote they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it.”

Andrew says he is giving up his royal titles, including that of Duke of York, and other honors because “the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family.”

In her posthumous book, Giuffre recounts details of how she first met Andrew in March 2001, and that she was forced to have sex with him on three separate occasions.

The king strips his brother of his remaining titles and honors, including the one he has held since birth — prince. He is to be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor — and he subsequently gains a hyphen. The king also serves notice for Andrew to leave Royal Lodge, his 30-room stately home near Windsor Castle, where he has lived for more than 20 years. He agrees to relocate to his brother’s private and remote Sandringham Estate

The U.S. Justice Department publishes the Epstein files, which appear to reveal further unsavory details about the relationship between Andrew and Epstein. One picture of Mountbatten-Windsor crouching over an unnamed woman on the floor in what appears to be Epstein's apartment in New York causes widespread consternation and disgust. Among the allegations that emerge over the ensuing days is that Mountbatten-Windsor sent Epstein confidential reports from a 2010 tour of Southeast Asia, which he undertook as Britain’s envoy for international trade. That proved to be the catalyst for his arrest.

Mountbatten-Windsor leaves his mansion at Windsor Castle to live in a much-smaller property on the king's Sandringham Estate.

The king indicates that he is ready to “support’’ police examining claims that his brother gave confidential information to Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor is arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Thames Valley Police, which oversees an area west of London, including Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home at Windsor Castle. It had previously said it was “assessing” reports that Andrew sent trade reports to Epstein in 2010. Around 11 hours after the arrest, he was released under investigation. Police said they had finished searching Mountbatten-Windsor’s home, but officers were still searching his former residence near Windsor Castle.

Trump heads to Georgia, a target of his election falsehoods, as Republicans look for midterm boost

ROME, Ga. (AP) — The White House insisted that President Donald Trump was visiting Georgia to promote the economy.

But in the opening minutes of his first stop at a local restaurant, the president raised the prospect of voter fraud without evidence and talked up his plan to require voters to show identification before casting ballots.

“We're going to clean it up,” Trump said of the voting system.

Trump's destination in Georgia suggests he has something else on his mind, too. After his stop at The Varsity Restaurant, he was heading to a steel company in the congressional district previously represented by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former supporter who resigned in January after feuding with Trump.

There's a special election to replace her on March 10.

The White House has long said Trump would focus more on the economy, and he frequently complains that he doesn't get enough credit for it. But recent months have been dominated by other issues, including deadly clashes during deportation efforts in Minneapolis, potential military action in Iran, and his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

As a reminder of his divided attention, Trump opened Thursday, focusing on one of his passion projects. He joined representatives from some of the more than two dozen countries that have joined his Board of Peace, a diplomatic initiative to potentially supplant the United Nations.

Vice President JD Vance, in a nod to domestic politics heading into the midterm elections, tried to sell the Board of Peace as a win for the American people.

“The reason that we’re here today is yes to save lives and yes to promote peace, but this creates incredible prosperity for the American people,” Vance said Thursday morning, suggesting that the countries represented on the board represent “trillions of dollars of investment” in the U.S.

The Georgia visit comes less than a month after federal agents seized voting records and ballots from Fulton County, home to the state’s largest collection of Democrats.

Trump has long seen Georgia as central to his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats and President Joe Biden, a fabrication that he reiterated Wednesday during a White House reception on Black History Month.

“We won by millions of votes but they cheated,” Trump said.

Audits, state officials, courts and Trump’s own former attorney general have all rejected the idea of widespread problems that could have altered the election.

Some Republicans are now pushing for Georgia’s State Election Board, which has a Trump-aligned majority, to take control of elections in Fulton County — a step enabled by a controversial state law passed in 2021. But it’s unclear if or when the board will act.

Leavitt, in the White House, said Wednesday that Trump was “exploring his options” when it comes to a potential executive order he teased on social media over the weekend designed to address voter fraud.

Trump described Democrats as “horrible, disingenuous CHEATERS” in the post, which is pinned to the top of his social media account. He also said that Republicans should feature such claims “at the top of every speech.”

Scott Johnson of Marietta, a longtime GOP leader in Georgia who gathered at the Coosa Steel Corporation in Rome to see the president, said that “the economy is a winning issue for us.”

He's not so sure that boosting claims of election fraud from 2020 is a good idea.

“I’m not concerned about relitigating the past. I’m concerned about moving forward in the future," he said.

Trump may be distracted by fresh attacks from Greene, once among the president's most vocal allies in Congress and now one of his loudest conservative critics.

In a social media post ahead of Trump's visit, Greene noted that the White House and Republican leaders met earlier in the week to develop an effective midterm message. She suggested they were “on the struggle bus" and blamed them for health insurance costs that ballooned this year.

“Approximately 75,000 households in my former district had their health insurance double or more on January 1st of this year because the ACA tax credits expired and Republicans have absolutely failed to fix our health insurance system that was destroyed by Obamacare,” she said. “And you can call me all the petty names you want, I don’t worship a man. I’m not in a cult.”

Early voting has already begun in the special election to replace Greene, and the leading Republican candidates have fully embraced Trump.

Trump was traveling on Thursday with his preferred candidate, Clay Fuller, a district attorney who prosecutes crimes in four counties. Fuller described Trump’s endorsement as “rocket fuel” for his candidacy in a weekend interview and vowed to maintain an America First agenda even if he remains in Congress after Trump is no longer president.

Other candidates include Republican former state Sen. Colton Moore, who made a name for himself with a vociferous attack on Trump’s prosecution in Georgia. Moore, the favorite of many far-right activists, said he’s been in communication with Trump even after Trump endorsed Fuller, calling the choice “unfortunate.”

“I think he’s the greatest president of our lifetimes,” Moore said.

The top Democrat in the race is Shawn Harris, who unsuccessfully ran against Greene in 2024. Democrats voice hope for an upset, but the district is rated as the most Republican district in Georgia by the Cook Political Report.