The legal jeopardy facing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor deepened this week with news that British police are investigating an allegation of sexual misconduct at the Royal Ascot race meeting in 2002, adding to existing probes into suspected misconduct in public office and sexual offences. The development coincided with a public accusation from Jess Michaels, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein, that Buckingham Palace covered up the former prince’s actions after receiving an archive of 30,000 emails in May 2020 that allegedly showed he shared confidential government information during his tenure as trade envoy. “This is what institutions do. They protect powerful men and leave the people they harmed to carry,” Ms Michaels said, arguing that the palace’s failure to act had failed his accuser Virginia Giuffre and carried wider moral consequences.

Viewed from Washington, the Epstein scandal is belatedly prompting a similar reckoning, albeit with notably softer consequences thus far. The US Congress, under mounting public pressure and persistent calls from alleged victims, has launched fresh hearings that have already drawn testimony from former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Republican figures such as former Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have also been subpoenaed. Now, lawmakers plan to question Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder whose once-sterling philanthropic reputation has been tarnished by his links to Epstein—links that recently led to his exclusion from Microsoft’s annual CEO summit and a notable absence from the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders’ meeting.

Analysts in London and Berlin note a striking transatlantic divergence in accountability. In Europe, high-ranking officials and a prince have fallen with dramatic speed: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his military patronages and HRH style before being arrested. Yet across the Atlantic, the consequences have been comparatively mild, prompting the very congressional inquiry launched to understand why. The pattern is consistent with a broader Anglo-European astonishment that American elites—whether in technology, politics, or finance—have largely managed to ride out the scandal without formal sanction.

The forward-looking analysis remains guarded. Survivor activism, led by figures like Michaels and Giuffre, is forcing once-unassailable institutions to defend their conduct, but the Palace’s alleged stonewalling underscores the depth of the challenge. With investigations on both sides of the Atlantic now active, the Epstein affair appears far from over. The question is whether these inquiries will lead to substantive consequences or merely add to the archive of elite impunity.