The Duke and the DOJ: Prince Andrew in the Epstein Files
- Patrick Duggan
- Feb 21
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 25
# The Duke and the DOJ: Prince Andrew in the Epstein Files
On January 3, 2025, the Department of Justice released the largest tranche of Epstein-related documents in history. We indexed them. All of them. And when we ran facial recognition against 42,000 evidence photographs, Prince Andrew's face appeared at 93% confidence on page 6791 and 92% confidence on page 6635.
But the photos are just the beginning. When we queried our index for "Prince Andrew," we got over 1,000 document hits. Not tabloid clippings. Not speculation. Internal DOJ operational emails, Mutual Legal Assistance requests, and prosecution coordination threads that reveal exactly how the Southern District of New York tried to get testimony from a sitting member of the British Royal Family.
This is the machinery of international prosecution laid bare.
The MLA Request: When Prosecutors Cross Borders
Document **EFTA00022059** is a Mutual Legal Assistance request email with the subject line "Material Witness PA 182-73090." For those unfamiliar with the process, an MLA request is the formal mechanism by which one country's prosecutors ask another country's legal system for help obtaining evidence or testimony. It is not a casual ask. It requires sign-off at senior levels of both governments.
The existence of this document means SDNY was not merely interested in Prince Andrew — they were invoking international legal treaties to compel his cooperation. This is the prosecutorial equivalent of knocking on Buckingham Palace's door with a warrant.
The Berman Email: "We've Been Asked and Will Decline"
**EFTA00023409** is an email with the subject "Prince Andrew," dated February 25, 2020, sent to Geoffrey Berman, then the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. This email contains embedded DOJ investigation documents. Berman — the same prosecutor who was controversially fired by Attorney General Barr four months later — was directly managing the Prince Andrew angle of the investigation.
Then there is **EFTA00010384**, an SDNY email with the line: "We've been asked and will decline about the statement released by Andrew." This is a reference to Royal Communications — the Palace's official PR apparatus — issuing a statement, and the DOJ deciding not to respond publicly. The internal deliberation about a foreign royal's PR strategy shows how politically sensitive this investigation was.
The Discovery Emails: Photos and Dates
**EFTA00030586** is a 2016 discovery email that reads: "a picture of me with Prince Andrew, do you recall seeing the date on the back." This is civil litigation discovery — someone (likely Virginia Giuffre or her legal team) asking about a photograph that places them with the Duke. The photograph in question became one of the most reproduced images in the case: Andrew with his arm around Giuffre's waist, Maxwell smiling in the background.
**EFTA00030588**, from 2014, references "when the tabloids sent their photographer out." The timeline matters here. By 2014, the British tabloid press was already circling the story, but mainstream media largely treated Andrew's connection to Epstein as gossip rather than evidence. It took six more years before the BBC's Newsnight interview brought the story to a wider audience.
The Butler Speaks: "Maybe Has Something to Hide"
**EFTA00022343** contains a reference to an article headlined "Prince Andrew 'maybe has something to hide': Epstein butler." The internal DOJ annotation reads: "Definitely less than ideal. At least he doesn't mention..." — and the rest is redacted. The butler in question is Juan Alessi, who worked at Epstein's Palm Beach estate and later became a cooperating witness. The fact that DOJ prosecutors were tracking butler interviews and assessing their impact on the case shows the granular level of attention Andrew's involvement received.
The Media Tracking Chain
The DOJ was not just investigating Prince Andrew — they were monitoring every piece of public reporting about him in real time:
- **EFTA00024474**: A shared NYTimes article — "Prince Andrew Sought Washington Lobbyist to Help With Epstein Case" — showing Andrew hiring political fixers to manage his exposure
- **EFTA00030498**: Reuters reporting "Prince Andrew 'a person of interest' in Epstein probe" — circulated internally at DOJ
- **EFTA00025548**: "Prince Andrew reportedly now cooperating with Jeffrey Epstein investigators" — with the internal note "Did anyone talk to the telegraph?" suggesting DOJ was tracking which outlets were getting leaks
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- **EFTA00026869**: "Gloria Allred purchases Prince Andrew 'wanted' poster" — even the theatrical gestures were logged
- **EFTA00027442**: An NYLJ article by attorney Evan Barr analyzing the legal dimensions of the Andrew situation
The Internal Chains
Documents **EFTA00028001**, **EFTA00028560**, and **EFTA00028760** are multiple internal DOJ email chains specifically about Prince Andrew. These are not single emails — they are threaded conversations among prosecutors, each representing multiple exchanges, strategy discussions, and coordination across offices. The volume alone tells a story: this was not a peripheral concern. SDNY dedicated significant prosecutorial resources to the Andrew angle.
What the Documents Actually Show
The Epstein files do not contain a smoking gun confession from Prince Andrew. What they contain is something arguably more important: the complete documentary record of how American federal prosecutors attempted to build an international case involving a member of the British monarchy.
The MLA request shows they tried the formal route. The Berman emails show it went to the top of SDNY. The media tracking shows they understood the political dimensions. The discovery emails show the civil case was feeding evidence into the criminal investigation. The butler interviews show they were building corroboration from multiple witnesses.
And then Geoffrey Berman was fired in June 2020, in circumstances that remain disputed. The investigation did not produce charges against Andrew. He settled Virginia Giuffre's civil lawsuit for an undisclosed sum in February 2022.
The documents do not tell us why charges were never filed. They tell us that the apparatus was in motion, that prosecutors were serious, and that the paper trail exists. We preserved it. All 329,000+ documents, indexed and searchable. Because the DOJ delisted 50,136 of these files from their public repository, and if we had not downloaded them first, this record might not exist at all.
*This is part of our Epstein Deep Dive series. All documents referenced are available in our searchable index at epstein.dugganusa.com. Face identification performed using Google Cloud Vision API against 42,000 evidence photographs released by the DOJ.*
*DugganUSA LLC is a Minnesota-based cybersecurity company. We index public records. We do not make accusations. We let the documents speak.*
*Her name was Renee Nicole Good.*
*His name was Alex Jeffery Pretti.*
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