Paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s planned to extort money from the Queen by blackmailing Prince Andrew, it is claimed.
Financier John Bryan says Epstein would befriend rich and powerful men before blackmailing them.
Mr Bryan, the Texan millionaire who was pictured sucking the toes of Fergie just five months after her separation from Prince Andrew in 1992, said: “Epstein made [rich men] pay to avoid scandal. He made hundreds of millions of dollars this way.
“He tried to lure Andrew into his web, but his ultimate mark was the Queen. I believe Andrew is innocent. If he was involved in ‘orgies’, as has been alleged, then Epstein would have used that to bribe the Queen into paying out millions. But Andrew never gave him the ammunition to do so.”
Mr Bryan, who reportedly knew some of the men Epstein blackmailed, also said he was smuggled into Andrew’s home in Windsor to advise on restoring the Duke’s shattered reputation after his disastrous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis in 2019.
Andrew had said he would see paedophile sex-trafficker Epstein up to three times a year. Mr Bryan told the Mail on Sunday that Andrew shouted ‘I don’t care any more’ after the Queen told him to step away from royal duties, while Princess Beatrice told her father: ‘You’ve hurt our family.’
Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. His ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was jailed for 20 years for procuring teenage girls to be abused by him.
Andrew has strenuously denied accusations that he had sex with Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, who was one of Epstein’s victims, when she was 17.
