Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor appears to have been pictured reclining across the legs of five people with his head near a woman’s lap in a huge document dump related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In the undated image, which is a photograph of a picture in a photo frame, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell appears to peer down and smile at the former duke, who is smiling with his eyes closed.
A trove of documents, including court records, footage and images, was uploaded on Friday night to the US Department of Justice website, which held users in a queue as it experienced an “extremely high volume of search requests”.
The data dump came after US deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said “several hundred thousand” documents from the so-called “Epstein files” would be released ahead of a legal deadline.
He said the need to protect the victims of sex offender Epstein meant thousands more would be released over the coming weeks.
The US Department of Justice are legally obligated to make all files related to the investigation into Epstein public by midnight on Friday following the passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The paedophile financier was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan, New York, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Among the hundreds of photos included in the files are undated photos of Maxwell standing outside the door of 10 Downing Street and posing with former US president Bill Clinton and actor Kevin Spacey.
The picture appears to show Andrew lying across a number of people’s laps Credit: Jordan Pettitt/PA
Many of the photos and documents are heavily redacted, prompting criticism from US lawmakers and lawyers for Epstein’s victims.
Congressman Thomas Massie, a Republican who pressed for the law forcing the disclosure, said: “Unfortunately, today’s document release by AG Pam Bondi and DAG Todd Blanche grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that Donald Trump signed just 30 days ago.”
Andrew has faced allegations, which he strenuously denies, that he sexually assaulted a teenage Virginia Giuffre after she was trafficked by Epstein.
He paid millions to Ms Giuffre, a woman he has claimed never to have met, to settle a civil sexual assault claim in 2022.
Tens of thousands of records relating to Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ms Maxwell, have already been released through civil and criminal cases in the US.
It comes after a fresh batch of images from Epstein’s estate were released on Thursday by the Democrats.
Photos of former US president Bill Clinton are included in the release of documents Credit: Liam McBurney/PA
A total of 68 images were published online on Thursday, including billionaire businessman Bill Gates posing with women whose faces have been redacted, and prominent philosopher Noam Chomsky on board Epstein’s private jet.
The latest batch follows others from Epstein’s estate posted last week, including one of Andrew standing next to Microsoft magnate Mr Gates.
Andrew stepped down from royal duties in 2019 after his disastrous Newsnight interview, but the publication of Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, and the US government’s release of documents from Epstein’s estate, brought more scrutiny over his relationship with the financier.
It led to the King officially stripping his disgraced brother of both his HRH style and his prince title.
US politicians have criticised him for his “silence” after he missed a deadline last month to respond to their request to sit for an interview about Epstein.
