DOJ files include 2001 Balmoral email, 2006 Edinburgh flight log

Police Scotland said only that it had been passed information about Epstein and Maxwell’s stays at Balmoral, King Charles III’s private summer residence in the Scottish Highlands, where the pair were guests of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The force said active inquiries were ongoing and that the investigation was at a “very early stage.”

“All inquiries are evidence led, with the needs of victim survivors at the heart of those enquiries. We would never confirm details of ongoing enquiries and it would be inappropriate to comment further,” a spokesman for the force said.

The alleged visits were reported by the Independent and The Telegraph. The development was first reported by the Scottish Daily Express, which said it understood the probe was related to allegations that women were “trafficked” to Balmoral.

The inquiry follows a public appeal for information by Police Scotland in February after it was reported that Andrew and Maxwell flew into Edinburgh airport on Epstein’s private jet in September 2006. Flight logs for Epstein’s jet contained in the files record a Sept. 1, 2006, flight from Luton, just north of London, to Edinburgh, with Andrew and Maxwell on board.

The former prince reportedly invited Epstein to visit in 1999. A photograph released by the U.S. Justice Department shows Epstein and Maxwell at the estate, although it was unclear exactly when in 1999 because the photograph is undated. Other photos previously released by the Justice Department show Epstein accompanying Andrew on a shooting trip. Epstein and Maxwell were reportedly accompanied by an unspecified number of young women, and one of the women has previously alleged that Andrew personally welcomed the group when they arrived at the castle. The visit likely took place in late summer or early fall of 1999, when the late Queen Elizabeth would have been at Balmoral.

The files also contain an Aug. 16, 2001, email to Maxwell from someone identified only by the initial “A” saying he was at Balmoral and asking whether she had “found me some new inappropriate friends.”

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence in the United States for sex trafficking. Epstein was facing sex trafficking charges when he died in 2019 while on remand in New York, before he could be put on trial.