LONDON — Britain's royal family is facing a fresh round of embarrassment after the latest release of documents from the U.S. investigation into Jeffrey Epstein revealed unsavory details about the relationship between the convicted sex offender and a correspondent who appears to be the man formerly known as Prince Andrew.
Emails released by the U.S. Justice Department include an invitation for Epstein to dine at Buckingham Palace, Epstein's offer to introduce his correspondent to a 26-year-old Russian woman, and photos that appear to show Andrew kneeling over an unidentified woman who is lying on the floor.
The revelations come three months after King Charles III stripped Andrew of his royal titles, including the right to be called a prince, as he tried to insulate the monarchy from a steady stream of stories about his younger brother's relationship with Epstein that has tarnished the royal family for more than a decade. The former prince is now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
A tarnished figure
As a result of that move, the damage from the latest emails is likely to be limited to Mountbatten-Windsor, said Craig Prescott, an expert on constitutional law and the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London.
The documents show that ''they had to do something to separate Andrew from the rest of the family, and the nuclear option was the clearest way of doing it,'' Prescott said. ''And as more comes out, then you do feel that they have been justified.''
The documents raise serious questions about Andrew's judgment, while offering a rare look at how some of the world's super elite behave behind closed doors, Prescott said.
''It's sort of the things they do behind some of the most gilded doors in New York or London or wherever,'' he said. ''It's the sort of things that on some occasions seem to be going on. And I think most people just think, wow, that's all very extraordinary.''
