Cockburn takes a keen interest in the correspondence between former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s ex and consigliere.
Back in 2019, readers will no doubt recall, Andrew took part in a disastrous interview with the BBC’s Newsnight in an attempt to smooth over the reports of his ties to Epstein and his alleged sexual encounters with a teenage Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Specifically, Andrew denied ever having stayed at Epstein’s house on New York’s Upper East Side on April 11, 2001 – during the trip when Roberts Giuffre says she had sex with the prince for a second time, when she was aged 17. “I wasn’t staying there. I may have visited but definitely didn’t, definitely, definitely no, no, no activity,” he told interviewer Emily Maitlis.
In December 2020, Mail reporters saw an “official itinerary” for the 2001 trip which states Andrew slept at a “private address” on the night of April 11. A spokeswoman for Andrew refused to comment on the Mail’s investigation.
However, a March 10, 2001, email from Andrew to Ghislaine, released by the Department of Justice Friday, reads, “I will be arriving on the evening of 9th April and in town for 10/11 and then off to Bahamas on 12.”
Then on March 20, Andrew writes to offer more detail:
Right then, my programme.
I arrive on the 9th around lunchtime. I have a supper to go to at around 1900 but will be free prior to that. I am staying with the British Consul that night.
I have a full day of meetings on 10th in New York and then I fly up to Boston for the night and most of the next day.
I will be free when I get back to New York on the evening of the 11th and would dearly love a bed for the night somewhere prior to taking off to Nassau on the 12th, Thursday. I am going via Miami.
I will have a staff with me, but they go back from Boston on 11th when I come back to New York.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Masses of love A. xxx
PS nothing else to report from here!
The second encounter between Andrew and Roberts Giuffre is when, according to Roberts Giuffre, Andrew groped her and another young woman with a puppet designed to resemble him, from the British satirical show Spitting Image. A photograph showing that puppet to be present in Epstein’s New York residence was released in the December 2025 Epstein Files release.
Roberts Giuffre, who died by suicide in April 2025, has many doubters. But the exchanges between Andrew “The Invisible Man” and “G Max” do at least chime with her recollections from that year.
In an August 2001 email, Andrew asks Maxwell, “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends? Let me know when you are coming over as I am free from 25th August until 2nd Sept and want to go somewhere hot and sunny with some fun people.”
Maxwell responds, “So sorry to dissapoint [sic] you, however the truth must be told. I have only been able to find appropriate friends. Will let you know about some church meetings on those dates.”
Other messages between Maxwell and Andrew indicate the closeness of their relationship: Maxwell calls Andrew “sweat pea” in a note offering sympathies after the death of his grandmother. “I love you and think of you very often,” Maxwell says to the prince in 2003. “You are my best friend,” she concludes.
In a 2002 email, released to the public in December, Maxwell attempts to set up some “2 legged sight seeing (read intelligent pretty fun and from good families)” for the prince on his trip to Peru.
An email from this cache reveals Andrew’s response: “As for girls well I leave that entirely to you and Juan Estoban!”
It’s not all royals and lords. Longtime Spectator readers will be unsurprised to learn that a couple of Cockburn’s editors get a name-check in the files.
Plus Steve Bannon took the time to send Epstein two US Spectator articles – by Douglas Murray and Nicholas Farrell. Thanks for reading, Steve.
On our radar
NO FLY DRONE An Iranian drone was shot down by a US F-35C stealth fighter jet “in self-defense” as the drone flew “aggressively” toward an American aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea.
PETRO STATE President Trump met privately with President Gustavo Petro of Colombia today to discuss the flow of narcotics out of Colombia. Trump appeared optimistic beforehand, saying Monday that Petro “has been very nice over the last month or two.”
TRUE CRIME Broadcaster Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother is thought to have been abducted while sleeping. The FBI is assisting with the investigation.
In defense of Nancy Mace’s upvotes
Beneath a photo of herself bearing the caption “UNBOTHERED,” Representative Nancy Mace posted, in advance of a New York magazine “hit piece” on her, “I have enemies? Good. Get in line. That means I’ve stood for something.”
The South Carolina Congresswoman, of course, is always bothered one way or another. But as it turns out in the piece, most of her enemies are disgruntled former staffers. After a House floor speech last year where Mace accused her former fiancé of sexually assaulting her, a staffer told New York that Mace was “broken.” “She’s deteriorated, and it sucks,” the source said. The piece highlights Mace’s “airport meltdown” when, while briefly detained in Charleston during October’s government shutdown, she shouted at TSA agents, “this is no way to treat a fucking U.S. Representative,” which is true.
Cockburn has had his fun with Mace over the years, but what’s the crime, exactly, in Mace asking her staffers to bring her tequila and weed in the middle of the night? “She would definitely do it excessively,” a staffer said. Enjoy yourself, Nancy. It’s later than you think.
Then there was the fact, reported in the piece, that Mace instructed staffers to go on Reddit and upvote her in “hottest women in Congress” lists. “Nancy Mace–Best rack in D.C.,” reads one item unearthed by X user “Hunter Biden Dem,” alongside a photo of Mace swelling out of a hot-pink blouse. Who can blame Nance for a little artificial inflation?
The passion of Will Stancil
Extremely online Minnesota political activist Will Stancil ran into trouble recently, quite literally. Someone from antifa apparently punched Stancil in the face while he was filming some sort of protest after the Alex Pretti shooting. While a literal dumpster fire goes off in the background, the antifa member says, “he’s filming people’s faces!” “I’ve done a lot more than you have,” Stancil says. “Jackass.”
“He’s filming people’s faces!” the antifa person says again, as though it’s a crime. “OH NO!” Stancil exclaims sardonically, before the hammer of anarchy rains down upon his head. Fellow disruptors have been wary of Stancil’s recent choice to allow journalists to embed with him while he drives around the Twin Cities in his Honda Fit, looking for ICE operations to monitor.
Stancil has been suffering from a touch of Main Character Syndrome while out protesting ICE in Minneapolis, but no one can doubt his sincerity. His numerous online opponents have garnered a sort of respect for his annoyingly tenacious nature.
“It remains true that the only people online, or in person, that actually care about Will Stancil are the right wingers who make fun of him,” someone wrote on X yesterday. “Seeing Antifa physically bully him enrages me. He’s OURS to bully, not yours.”
Stancil’s posting after the incident indicates that the black pill may be halfway down his throat. “Nonsensical,” he wrote of his assault on Bluesky and Twitter Monday. “Just dudes wanting someone to give them a reason. Not that different from ICE.”
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