Epstein ally thrown overboard 'before he sinks the whole ship': analysis

British journalist Tonya Gold spelled out for the New York Times how the British people and it’s government treats people dirtied by close connections to convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. In Britain, they do not elect them to high office. They jettison them from the public eye.

“The downfall of Prince Andrew happened in installments,” said Gold. “In 2011 he stepped down from his role as a trade envoy after his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious sex offender, was exposed. In 2019 he was forced to withdraw from royal duties after a disastrous BBC interview in which he said he had ‘no recollection’ of ever meeting Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a victim of Mr. Epstein who accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.”

In 2022 Andrew was stripped of the ‘His Royal Highness’ honorific while defending a civil case against Giuffre, in which he eventually settled for an undisclosed sum.

And this month Gold reports a newly disclosed email shows Andrew “was in touch” with Epstein after the date he said he’d severed all contact.

“In the email he wrote that they’d ‘play more soon’ and were ‘in it together.’ Around the same time Giuffre released a damning memoir, “Nobody’s Girl,” which described Andrews’ alleged sexual assaults in detail. Now Andrew has relinquished further privileges, including his “Duke of York” title and his membership of aristocratic society the “Order of the Garter.”

Additionally, the British public wants him to surrender his 30-room home near Windsor Castle. And there are also calls for him to lose the title of prince and be forced to live as Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor.

“For the royal family, this is a necessary purge,” said Gold. “Andrew must be thrown overboard before he sinks the whole ship. … He is vain, and he thought he could redeem himself by force of personality. He was wrong.”

And while “in earlier times” the Royal family might have locked somebody like Andrew “in the Tower of London,” today they are apparently content to “abandon him to the tabloids and leak stories that he will not be welcome for family Christmas at Sandringham.

Andrew, by the way, has not even been convicted of anything yet. He’s merely agreed to an out-of-court settlement with an alleged victim. But that is the reaction to the Epstein toxin by a population that chooses to “no longer consent to Prince Andrew.”

“Andrew once told a journalist he would rather be a plumber than a prince,” said Gold. “Perhaps there’s still time.”

Read the New York Times opinion at this link.