LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Latest on Prince Andrew’s efforts to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal (all times local):
2:25 p.m.
Attorney Gloria Allred says Britain’s Prince Andrew should voluntarily speak to the FBI about what he knows about Jeffrey Epstein.
Allred made the comment Monday during a news conference to announce a lawsuit by a woman who said Epstein raped her when she was 15.
The woman said Epstein flew her to his ranch in New Mexico and sexually assaulted her. She is now 31 and identified only as Jane Doe 15.
The woman said she was later invited to Epstein’s private island where she was told Prince Andrew would be among the guests. The woman says she declined the invite out of fear.
The prince, who was friends with Epstein, denied having sex with a woman who says she was trafficked by the billionaire financier and had sex with Andrew when she was 17.
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10:40 a.m.
Prince Andrew’s effort to put the Jeffrey Epstein scandal behind him may have instead done him irreparable harm.
While aides are trying to put the best face on his widely criticized interview with the BBC, royal watchers are asking whether he can survive the public relations disaster and remain a working member of the royal family.
The question facing Queen Elizabeth II and her advisers is how to protect the historic institution of the monarchy from the taint of a 21st-century sex-and-trafficking scandal and the repeated missteps of a prince who has been a magnet for bad publicity as he struggles to find a national role for himself.
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