A man who appears to be Britain’s former prince Andrew discussed meetings with “inappropriate friends” with Ghislaine Maxwell

A man who appears to be Britain’s former prince Andrew discussed arranging meetings with “inappropriate friends” with Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to newly released US Government documents.

The documents also reveal Donald Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported.

The Maxwell correspondence dates from 2001 and 2002 and was sent from an account using the alias “The Invisible Man” and signing off as “A.”

In one August 2001 message, the writer says he is staying at Balmoral, the British royal family’s summer residence in Scotland, and asks Maxwell: “Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”

While the author is not explicitly named, several details point toward the former prince, whose royal titles were stripped in the fallout from the scandal.

The emails refer to Balmoral, to a valet who had served the writer since childhood and to leaving the “RN” -- a reference to the Royal Navy, which Andrew left in July 2001.

In the exchange, Maxwell replies apologetically that she has found only “appropriate” friends, prompting a terse response from “A”: “Distraught!”

In an August 2001 message, “A” wrote: “I am up here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal Family,” referring to a residence of then-Queen Elizabeth II.

He added: “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 before having to put my nose firmly to the grindstone for the Fall.”

In another email chain from early 2002, Maxwell forwards correspondence about a proposed trip to Peru that includes plans to introduce “Andrew” to companions described as “friendly and discreet.”

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence for sex trafficking, suggests to her acquaintance that he organise some “two-legged sight-seeing.”

The digraced Royal took part in an official visit to Peru in March 2002. There is no suggestion of any illegal activity on that trip.

Meanwhile, in an email dated January 7, 2020, the unidentified New York prosecutor wrote that flight records showed Mr Trump had flown on Epstein’s private jet eight times during the 1990s.

Among those were at least four flights on which Maxwell was also aboard.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping late financier Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

In a social media post in 2024, Trump said he “was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island.”

There was ⁠no allegation in the prosecutor’s email that Trump had committed any crime.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the email.

On one flight described in the newly released records, the only three passengers were Epstein, Trump and a 20-year-old woman whose name was redacted.

“On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case,” the document stated.

The Department of Justice posted a statement on X saying: “Some of these documents ‌contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponised ‍against President Trump already.”

“Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims,” the department said.

The latest release of Epstein files includes around 30,000 pages of documents, with many redactions, and dozens of video clips, including several purporting to be shot inside a federal detention centre.

Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Trump has said their association ended in the mid-2000s and that he was never aware of the financier’s sexual abuse.

Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution.

The Justice Department charged him with sex trafficking in 2019.

Epstein was found dead in 2019 in a New York jail. His death was ruled a suicide.

In another email, an unidentified person wrote in 2021 that they had recently been looking through data the government obtained from former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s mobile phone and found an “image of Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell.”

The government redacted parts of the message indicating who sent and received it.

Another file in the government’s release included a grainy photo of Trump seated next to Maxwell. It matches an image of the two at a New York fashion show in 2000.

The disclosures included a scattering of other records that reference Trump, though they give little indication that ‌the government considered them to be credible.

On Monday, Trump downplayed the importance of the Epstein files.