The US Department of Justice has declassified more than three million documents relating to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. Photo / US Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice has declassified more than three million documents relating to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Bill Gates, and Lord Peter Mandelson are among the high-profile figures facing fresh scrutiny about the depth of their friendships with the billionaire paedophile.
The former Duke of York has suffered further blows to his beleaguered reputation with the emergence of a photo of him crouched on all fours looming over a woman lying on a floor, and emails to Epstein offering to host him at Buckingham Palace.
The Telegraph’s reporting team has combed through the tranche of files to bring you the latest updates on this breaking story.
The latest tranche of declassified documents has shed new light on the depth of the former Prince’s friendship with Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor invited the paedophile to an intimate dinner at Buckingham Palace a month after Epstein had been released from house arrest in August 2010, emails between the pair have revealed.
The paedophile had served 13 months in jail for soliciting a minor for prostitution and spent the subsequent year on house arrest in his Manhattan mansion.
Mountbatten-Windsor previously claimed to have cut contact with Epstein after the investigation was launched in 2006, only getting back in touch to end their relationship in person in late 2010.
However, in an email dated August 2010, Epstein said he could arrange to introduce him to a “beautiful” 26-year-old Russian woman named only as “Irina”.
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Sent August 11, 2010 21:09
From: Jeffrey Epstein
To: The Duke
Subject:
I have a friend who i think you might enjoy having dinner with, her name is irina she will be london 20-24
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Sent August 12, 2010 4:44AM
From: The Duke
To: Jeffrey Epstein
Subject: Re:
Of course. I am in Geneva until the morning of 22nd but would be delighted to see her. Will she be bringing a message from you?
Please give her my contact details to get in touch.
A
HRH The Duke of York KG
----------------------------------------------------------
Sent August 12, 2010 13:39
From: Jeffrey Epstein
To: The Duke
Subject:
########
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Sent Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 12:32 PM
From: The Duke
To: Jeffrey Epstein
Great. Any other information you might know about her that might be useful to know? Like what have you told her about me and have you given her my email as well?
HRH The Duke of York KG
----------------------------------------------------------
Sent August 12, 2010 17:41
From: Jeffrey Epstein
To: The Duke
Subject: Re:
she 26, russian, elevere beautiful, trustworthy and yes she has your email
----------------------------------------------------------
Sent Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 12:36 PM
From: The Duke
To: Jeffrey Epstein
That was quick! How are you? Good to be free?
HRH The Duke of York KG
----------------------------------------------------------
Sent August 12 2010 17:44
From: Jeffrey Epstein
To: The Duke
Subject: Re:
...great to be free of many things
----------------------------------------------------------
Sent Thursday 8/12/2010 4:39:12 PM
From: The Duke
To: Jeffrey Epstein
Subject: RE:
So many opportunities that I am frustratingly not allowed to participate in. And so many that are obvious but can’t get anyone to fire on.
Must come and see you sometime soon.
HRH The Duke of York KG
----------------------------------------------------------
A month later, the disgraced financier emailed Mountbatten-Windsor, listed in his contacts as “The Duke”, to say he was in London with three women, named as Sarah, Sue and Vera, and requested “private time” with the former royal.
In the exchange, Epstein asked if he should bring the women “so as to add some life”.
Mountbatten-Windsor said in reply “we could have dinner at Buckingham Palace”, adding that the location would offer “lots of privacy”.
Further emails show that in November 2010 Mountbatten-Windsor was “plotting” with Epstein before a meeting the next month, saying that he was “really looking” forward to seeing him. “Some interesting things to discuss and plot...,” he wrote.
Yet perhaps the most startling document may be a photograph of the former Duke of York crouched on all fours, looming over a woman lying flat on the floor.
Mountbatten-Windsor, 65, is seen looking at the camera as a woman, whose face is redacted, lies on her back between his arms. In another photo, his hand is placed on her torso.
The identity of the woman is not known.
Other emails reveal warm words shared in the earlier days of their relationship, such as one exchange in 2002 where Epstein asks Mountbatten-Windsor if it was true he was considering having more children, adding: “I shall have to refer to you as super sperm.”
Mountbatten-Windsor shut the suggestion down, telling his friend: “No I’m not having more children and don’t believe everything you read in the papers.”
Mountbatten-Windsor was approached for comment.
Lord Peter Mandelson, the United Kingdom’s former ambassador to Washington, is facing further questions about his relationship with Epstein after emails reveal that the paedophile sent £10,000 to his husband.
In September 2009, Reinaldo Avila da Silva emailed Epstein asking for money to fund an osteopathy course and other related expenses.
Mandelson married da Silva in 2023, after a relationship going back three decades.
Having received the request from da Silva, Epstein replied later that day: “I will wire your loan amount immediately [sic].”
Da Silva sent Epstein an email a few days later, saying “thank you for the money which arrived in my account this morning”.
Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US last year, after it emerged that he had called Epstein his “best pal” in a 50th birthday tribute book.
He subsequently claimed in an interview this month that he was kept in the dark about the full horror of Epstein’s crimes because he was gay. Despite his personal birthday tribute message, he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that he had been “at the edge of this man’s life”.
In a statement issued to the Telegraph yesterday, Mandelson apologised “unequivocally” to Epstein’s victims for his continued association with the paedophile.
“I was wrong to believe Epstein following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards,” he said. “I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered.”
Epstein claimed that Bill Gates caught a sexually transmitted disease after sleeping with “Russian girls”.
He also alleged that the Microsoft founder asked for antibiotics he could “surreptitiously give” to his then-wife Melinda, from whom he is now divorced.
On July 18, 2013, Epstein sent a memo to himself including a number of allegations about Gates.
It said: “To add insult to the injury you them [sic] implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda and the description of your penis.”
In a separate email, Epstein told Mandelson he had “monstrous fun” with Gates in Seattle.
A spokesman for Gates said: “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”
The files show that Elon Musk asked Epstein when the “wildest party” on his island was so that he could attend.
The Tesla boss exchanged emails with the paedophile in 2012, three years after Epstein was released from jail for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Epstein asked how many people Musk was planning to bring with him to Little Saint James, the financier’s island.
“Probably just Talulah and me. What day/night will be the wildest party on =our (SIC) island?” Musk responded.
Musk was married to the actress Talulah Riley from 2010 to 2013.
A year later, on December 13, 2013, Musk asked Epstein: “Will be in the BVI/St Bart’s area over the holidays. Is there a good time to visit?”
Epstein responded, saying: “Always space for you”.
It appears Musk was unable to make the trip, but a separate email exchange indicates the paedophile arranged to visit the SpaceX facility and have lunch with the billionaire.
In response to the latest release, Musk said: “No one pushed harder than me to have the Epstein files released and I’m glad that has finally happened. I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express’ but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name.
“I don’t care about that, but what I do care about is that we at least attempt to prosecute those who committed serious crimes with Epstein, especially regarding heinous exploitation of underage girls.”
Ghislaine Maxwell listed her official residence as Little Saint James – otherwise known as Epstein Island – on her US citizenship certificate, the latest tranche of Epstein files show.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence for sex trafficking on behalf of Epstein, is the former girlfriend of the paedophile. She became a naturalised US citizen on November 27, 2002, through her residence in the US Virgin Islands.
In the document, released by the US Justice Department yesterday NZT, Maxwell, who also has British and French citizenship, lists her previous nationality as French. Under her occupation, Maxwell has listed herself as being employed by Epstein as a “manager”.
Epstein bought the 30ha island for almost £6 million ($13.6m) and used it as his personal retreat to abuse girls as young as 14 who had been procured by Maxwell.
The island was later purchased for US$60m by Stephen Deckoff, a US financier and founder of Black Diamond Capital Management.
Maxwell, a British former socialite, was jailed in 2021. The newly released documents contain a copy of the form used by police to process Maxwell after her arrest on July 2, 2020.
The file, dated July 8, features Maxwell in a prison-issued orange jumpsuit, with other personal details including her full name, aliases, and a redacted home address in Bradford, New Hampshire.
The US first lady praised an article written about Epstein in an email to Maxwell, the Epstein files suggest.
In a 2002 email addressed to “G” and signed “Love, Melania”, US President Donald Trump’s wife apparently told Maxwell she looked great in a photo featured in a New York Magazine profile of Epstein. She described the article as a “nice story”.
Trump has been pictured with Maxwell on at least three occasions, and with Epstein at least once, in the early 2000s alongside Donald Trump.
The White House has been approached for comment.