Prince Andrew, from left, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell pictured inside Maxwell’s London townhouse in March 2001. "I asked Epstein to take our picture with my disposable camera. Hours later, I was forced to have sex with the prince," Giuffre writes in her posthumous memoir.

President Donald Trump was not the only big name in Jeffrey Epstein's inbox.

Epstein's relationship with the former Prince Andrew (now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) came under further scrutiny following newly released emails from the late financier and convicted sex offender, which were House Democrats unveiled Wednesday, Nov. 12.

The emails, obtained by USA TODAY, show the purported entanglement between Epstein and the disgraced prince, who've both been accused of sex-trafficking Virginia Giuffre as a teenager. Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and his longtime associate, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, to several prominent men, including Mountbatten-Windsor, in the early 2000s.

One of the emails, dated March 2011, appears to show a conversation between Epstein and someone named "The Duke" (Mountbatten-Windsor's former royal title was the Duke of York). The discussion centered on a media request for comment to Maxwell, relating to a news article from The Mail on Sunday that seemingly detailed allegations on the trio.

"What? I don't know any of this," "The Duke" writes to Epstein. "How are you responding?"

"Prince Andrew and the 17‑Year-Old Girl His Sex Offender Friend Flew to Britain to Meet Him," an article written by Daily Mail reporter Sharon Churcher, was published in The Mail on Sunday in February 2011. The story did not include Mountbatten-Windsor's name, as attorneys for the publication allegedly worried about potential legal action.

Giuffre filed a sex abuse lawsuit against Mountbatten-Windsor in 2021, alleging that she had been trafficked to the British royal family member by Epstein three times around 2001 when she was 17. The former prince settled the suit in 2022, although he has vehemently denied the allegations.

Mountbatten-Windsor's association with Epstein and Giuffre has affected his standing in the British royal family over the years. Three years after being stripped of his patronages and military associations by Queen Elizabeth II, he renounced his royal titles on Oct. 17 due to the continued accusations against him and the distraction they pose to the royal family (Mountbatten-Windsor's brother, King Charles III, formally stripped his titles on Oct. 30).

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the emails as Mountbatten-Windsor is a "private individual, and we do not speak for him."

Jeffrey Epstein suggests investigation of Prince Andrew accuser

In a July 2011 email addressed to Peggy Siegal, a publicist who helped Epstein rehabilitate his image after his release from jail in 2010, Epstein appeared to suggest the investigation of an unnamed accuser of Mountbatten-Windsor's.

"Ariana should champion the dangers of false allegations," Epstein wrote to Siegal, seemingly referring to HuffPost cofounder Arianna Huffington. "Send a reporter or reporters to investigate. The palace would love it."

This October, the Metropolitan Police in London announced they had launched an investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor after a Mail on Sunday report claimed the former prince asked police to investigate Giuffre following her accusations of sexual abuse.

The British tabloid cited a 2011 email allegedly showing that Mountbatten-Windsor told Queen Elizabeth's deputy press secretary that he provided one of his personal protection officers with Giuffre's date of birth and social security number "for investigation."

Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre photo discussed in Epstein emails

Epstein also appeared to confirm the infamous photo of Mountbatten-Windsor and Giuffre, which Giuffre claimed was taken hours before she had sex with the British royal, was authentic. In a 2019 interview with BBC's "Newsnight," Mountbatten-Windsor denied taking a photograph with Giuffre or ever meeting her.

"The girl in the photo was nothing more than a telephone answerer. She was never 15," Epstein wrote to Siegal. "According to her version, she worked for Trump first at that age at Mar-a-Lago. It's ridiculous."

Despite his defense of Mountbatten-Windsor, Epstein later appeared to express regret about his association with the ousted royal, according to a November 2016 email seemingly addressed to British politician Peter Mandelson.

"In hindsight, you were right about staying away from Andrew," Epstein wrote.

Contributing: Brendan Morrow, Bart Jansen, Erin Mansfield, Joey Garrison and Josh Meyer, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Did Epstein encourage Prince Andrew to investigate Virginia Giuffre? What new emails show

Reporting by Edward Segarra, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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