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Newly disclosed U.S. government files involving Jeffrey Epstein led to immediate political fallout in Europe and renewed calls in Britain for former Prince Andrew to cooperate with U.S. authorities, according to Associated Press reporting on the disclosures. In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico accepted the resignation of national security adviser Miroslav Lajcak after photos and emails indicated Lajcak had met with Epstein in the years after Epstein’s release from jail. In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Mountbatten-Windsor should tell American investigators whatever he knows about Epstein’s activities, as the former prince has so far ignored a request from U.S. House Oversight Committee members for a “transcribed interview” about his “long-standing friendship” with Epstein.
The resurgent attention in both countries is tied to the Justice Department’s broader release of Epstein-related records. The AP reported that Trump’s Justice Department said it would release more than 3 million pages of documents, along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, under a law intended to reveal most of the material collected during two decades of investigations into Epstein.
President Donald Trump made his first public remarks on the disclosures by saying he had not personally reviewed them but was told by “very important people” that they “absolved” him. He added that it was “the opposite” of what “the radical left” had been hoping for, as he spoke Saturday night during a flight to Florida. The AP reported that the documents posted by the department included items involving Epstein’s friendship with Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein’s email correspondence with Trump adviser Steve Bannon, New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch and other prominent contacts.
Fico said he accepted Lajcak’s resignation. The AP reported that Lajcak was not accused of wrongdoing but stepped down after emails showed Epstein had invited him to dinner and other meetings in 2018. The records also included a March 2018 email from Epstein’s office to former Obama White House general counsel Kathy Ruemmler, inviting her to a get-together with Epstein, Lajcak and Bannon.
In Britain, Starmer’s comments came as the records also renewed questions about how far Mountbatten-Windsor should go in cooperating with U.S. authorities investigating Epstein. The AP reported that Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appeared repeatedly in Epstein’s private emails, including a 2010 exchange in which Epstein wrote, “I have a friend who I think you might enjoy having dinner with,” and Mountbatten-Windsor replied that he “would be delighted to see her.” Epstein later wrote that “She 26, russian, clevere beautiful, trustworthy and yes she has your email,” in an email that the AP said contained typographical errors.
The U.S. materials also offered detail on how investigators developed the case years ago, including a draft indictment described in the AP story. The AP reported that newly released documents said the FBI began investigating Epstein in July 2006 and agents expected him to be indicted in May 2007. It said a prosecutor wrote up a proposed indictment after underage girls told police and the FBI they had been paid for sexualized massages, and that the draft indicated prosecutors were preparing to charge Epstein and three people who worked for him as personal assistants.
The AP reported that interview notes released Friday included testimony from an employee at Epstein’s Florida estate. The employee, whose name was blacked out, told the FBI in 2007 that Epstein once had him buy flowers and deliver them to a student at Royal Palm Beach High School to commemorate a school play performance. The AP also reported that the employee said some duties included “fanning $100 bills” near Epstein’s bed, placing a gun between mattresses in Epstein’s bedroom, and cleaning up after Epstein’s frequent massages with young girls, including disposing of used condoms.
The AP said the eventual outcome of that phase involved a decision that let Epstein avoid federal prosecution. It reported that Alexander Acosta, then the U.S. attorney in Miami, signed off on a deal under which Epstein pleaded guilty to a state charge of soliciting prostitution from someone under age 18 and received an 18-month jail sentence. The AP reported that Acosta later served as Trump’s first labor secretary in his earlier term.
The AP said the newly released files also contained criticism aimed at the Justice Department’s handling of the disclosures. A group of Epstein accusers said the new documents made it “too easy to identify those he abused” while not similarly identifying people who might have been involved in Epstein’s criminal activity. The AP reported that Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, pressed the department to allow lawmakers to review unredacted versions of the files as soon as Sunday, saying Congress must assess whether redactions were lawful or improperly shielded people from scrutiny.
Beyond the new political and congressional pressure, the AP reported that the disclosures reinforced Epstein’s ties to prominent political figures, including Trump and former President Bill Clinton. The AP said no Epstein victims who have gone public accused either Trump or Clinton of wrongdoing, and that both men said they had no knowledge Epstein was abusing underage girls. The AP also reported that Epstein died by suicide in New York jail in August 2019, and that a 2021 federal jury in New York convicted Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of Epstein’s underage victims.
The AP reported that U.S. prosecutors never charged anyone else in connection with Epstein’s abuse. It said Virginia Roberts Giuffre sued Mountbatten-Windsor alleging sexual encounters with him starting at age 17, that Mountbatten-Windsor denied having sex with Giuffre but settled for an undisclosed sum, and that Giuffre died by suicide last year at age 41.