What the Epstein files do and don’t show about the Andrew tip

An unverified tip in an FBI report released with the Epstein files claims former Prince Andrew watched Ghislaine Maxwell abuse a girl in the 1990s. The document records an allegation, not a finding, and Andrew denies wrongdoing.

Among the documents the U.S. Justice Department has released from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are FBI records of tips the bureau received from the public. One of them, logged in a July 2020 report, has again circulated online after Britain’s Mirror newspaper first reported it in February.

The anonymous tipster alleged that in the mid-1990s, at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, Ghislaine Maxwell administered electric shocks to a girl aged about 6 to 8 who had been strapped to a table, and that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then Prince Andrew, and other men watched.

A tip, not a finding

Andrew greets Donald Trump in 2019 (file photo)

FBI tip records capture what callers report; they do not mean the bureau found the information credible. Nothing in the released material indicates the tip was verified or led to action, and the "shock collar" phrase in the Mirror headline does not appear in the account itself.

Andrew has consistently denied wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and Maxwell. Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate, was convicted in a New York federal court in 2021 of sex trafficking of minors and is serving a 20-year sentence.

Pressure in Britain

In Britain, Andrew was arrested on Feb. 19 on suspicion of misconduct in public office and released the same day. The investigation continues, although police accepted this month that warrants used to search his homes were unlawful.