Prince Andrew has been given a boost as the FBI ended its probe into links involving the late paedophile financier and former friend Jeffrey Epstein.
There had been suggestions the Duke of York could face an investigation by the leading US intelligence agency as its new head vowed ‘to do everything’ to uncover people connected to convicted sex offender Epstein.
But now a new memo from the FBI and the US Department of Justice, obtained by Axios and ABC News, indicates there would be no further charges against anyone.
Investigators said they had discovered ‘no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals’ and no ‘evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties’.
Both the FBI and the US Department of Justice have determined that Epstein committed suicide when he died in jail and a fabled ‘client list’ does not exist.
The contact list, which has previously circulated in various forms, shows redacted information for dozens of the Hollywood, political and fashion elite and was purportedly compiled by Epstein and his longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell.
Personal contact information was redacted throughout the list.
FBI director Kash Patel had been a skeptic of the official findings behind Epstein’s death – but he has told podcaster Joe Rogan that since taking charge he had not found ‘what you want,’ which he described as ‘some guy or gal committing felonies.’
The Duke of York stepped back from frontline royal duties following controversy over his former friendship with disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein
Ex-billionaire financier Epstein (pictured) was found dead in his prison cell in August 2019
The Duke of York (left) was pictured with sex trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre (centre) and Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell (right)
Mr Patel said: ‘If I had it, I’d be the first guy to bring this case hard and fast,’ Patel claimed.
He added that his team at the FBI has viewed everything they have been given lawful access to from the infamous US Virgin Islands island owned by Epstein.
Meanwhile, CCTV footage taken outside Epstein’s cell has now been released, six years after the notorious paedophile was found dead.
About 11 hours of CCTV footage taken from inside the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York City on August 9 and 10 2019 has been publicly revealed for the first time, amid a probe into his death.
Following his arrest on multiple charges, including sex trafficking, Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell early in the morning of August 10 and was later declared dead in hospital.
The latest developments come weeks after Epstein accuser Virginie Giuffre died by suicide, aged 41, at her farm home near Perth in Australia.
She had previously told how Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell kept her as a sex slave while flying her around the world and offering to their powerful associates ‘like a platter of fruit’.
She alleged they trafficked her to the Duke of York when she was 17 and was three times sexually assaulted by him – a claim which Prince Andrew has denied.
The FBI and the Department of Justice under Donald Trump have determined Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide – pictured are Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel
The memo from the FBI and DOJ announced that no one involved in the Epstein case will follow former right-hand woman Ghislaine Maxwell to prison, as no further charges will be filed
The prince reached an out-of-court settlement with her in 2022.
Ms Giuffre won a multi-million pound settlement from Prince Andrew following claims she had been forced to have sex with him three times at the age of 17 when she was trafficked by his friend Epstein.
Andrew has denied her allegations and said he could not recall ever meeting her.
A photograph has been widely shared of them together in a London townhouse, his arm around her bare midriff, and was included in Ms Giuffre’s lawsuit against him.
Epstein killed himself in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14.
In lawsuits, Ms Giuffre said she was a teenage spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach club, when she was approached in 2000 by Epstein’s girlfriend and later employee Maxwell.
Ms Giuffre said Maxwell hired her as a masseuse for Epstein, but the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates.
Originally born in Florida, Ms Giuffre had moved to Australia with her husband Robert in 2019 prior to Epstein being arrested. The couple shared three children.
The Duke of York is seen here with his elder brother now-King Charles in London in June 2012
Prince Andrew, 65, stepped back from frontline royal duties in 2019 following controversy over his former friendship with Epstein.
Andrew, who has previously strenuously denied allegations against him, paid millions three years ago to settle a civil case out of court with Ms Giuffre.
There was no admission of guilt after she accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ms Giuffre, formerly Roberts, said in a 2015 lawsuit she was made by Epstein to have sex with Prince Andrew on three separate occasions when she was 17 – and later, in 2021, she filed a lawsuit against the prince over the alleged encounters.
MailOnline has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment.
