Britain’s ex-Prince Andrew arrested over Epstein ties

What happened

Britain’s Thames Valley Police Thursday arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, on suspicion of misconduct in public office tied to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The former prince was “released under investigation,” meaning he has not yet been charged nor exonerated, after almost 12 hours of questioning.

Who said what

Mountbatten-Windsor was detained early Thursday, his 66th birthday, after unmarked police cars arrived at his new home on the king’s Sandringham Estate. The Thames Valley Police is “accustomed to playing a different role for Britain’s royal family — as protectors,” said The New York Times, but confirmed earlier this month that it was investigating whether Mountbatten-Windsor improperly shared confidential government documents with Epstein while serving as a U.K. trade envoy from 2001 to 2011.

The “arrest of the senior royal, eighth in line to the throne, is unprecedented in modern times,” Reuters said. It was a “catch your breath moment” made “even more dramatic by the unprecedented statement” from Charles, “offering no hiding place or protection” for his brother, said BBC royal correspondent Sean Coughlan. “Let me state clearly,” the king said: “The law must take its course.”

The last senior member of Britain’s royal family to be arrested in connection with a serious crime was King Charles I, who was beheaded for treason in 1649 following his defeat in the English Civil War. Misconduct in public office, the potential charge for Mountbatten-Windsor, carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

What next?

“This is the most spectacular fall from grace for a member of the royal family in modern times,” Craig Prescott, a legal expert at the University of London, told The Associated Press. “And it may not be over yet.” Police said earlier this month they were also looking into another report from the Epstein files, that a woman was taken to an address in Windsor in 2010 “for sexual purposes.” Even if no other revelations emerge, The Wall Street Journal said, a “lengthy police investigation — and a possible criminal trial — could see the shadow of the Epstein scandal hanging over the British royal family for months to come.”