2小时前 | 发布于2026年2月20日，美国东部时间凌晨12:00 | CNN政治频道
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2025年4月拍摄于温莎城堡的安德鲁·蒙巴顿-温莎（Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor）于周四被捕。
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
在英国已故王子66岁生日当天，前来逮捕他的警察打破了人们对杰弗里·爱泼斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）丑闻的固有认知：即富人精英因其身份而免受审视。
在美国，问责制[似乎仍然遥不可及]。
没有什么身份比英国国王查尔斯三世的兄弟，或者[据内部人士称]已故女王伊丽莎白二世最宠爱的儿子更具精英色彩了。但即便如此，安德鲁·蒙巴顿-温莎（Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor）还是在爱泼斯坦相关文件公开后的调查中被逮捕。
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周四，这位前约克公爵从他在英国乡村的新住处被带到警察局，经历了这一屈辱场面，这使几代人以来最严重的王室争议升级。
蒙巴顿-温莎因涉嫌在担任英国贸易特使期间存在不当行为而接受讯问。此前，警方称正在审查他涉嫌与爱泼斯坦分享敏感信息的指控。蒙巴顿-温莎否认了此前所有不当行为，但尚未就最新指控发表评论。
但周四警方的一份声明中平淡的法律措辞，暴露了他如今境遇的窘迫。声明称“一名60多岁的男子来自诺福克郡”，“在调查期间获释”。
国王在一份声明中重申了“法律面前人人平等”的原则，即便是前约克公爵也不例外。这份声明值得注意的是，君主与他的兄弟划清了界限。
“我明确表示：法律必须公正执行，”声明中写道。
美国国会大厦倒映在水面上，就在华盛顿特区国会山举行的关于爱泼斯坦文件透明度法案新闻发布会前几小时。
Jonathan Ernst/路透社
为何美国的问责制进展缓慢
近400年来英国王室首次有人被捕，这提出了一个问题：如果英国和欧洲其他地区的法律机构能够独立行动，并打破爱泼斯坦前同伙网络的保护圈，为什么美国司法系统却缺乏类似的公信力？
“英国正在追究其有权势和特权者的责任。美国也应该这样做，”马萨诸塞州民主党众议员杰克·奥金克洛斯（Jake Auchincloss）告诉CNN的凯特·博尔杜安（Kate Bolduan）。
在英国，公众调查机制似乎如预期般运作。然而在美国，由于司法系统被政治化——该系统曾起诉特朗普总统的反对者，而特朗普总统则赦免了数百名与2021年1月6日骚乱有关的罪犯——我们很难对此有信心。
特朗普时期的司法部（DOJ）被迫在每一次披露中采取行动。到目前为止，唯一获得法律豁免的人是吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦（Ghislaine Maxwell），她作证称总统在与她前伴侣的交往中没有不当行为，并被转移到[监管更宽松的监狱]服刑其性犯罪判决。
被定罪的性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的受害者们在…
A former prince is arrested in the UK with accountability in question in the US
2 hr ago | PUBLISHED Feb 20, 2026, 12:00 AM ET | CNN Politics
Analysis by
[Stephen Collinson]
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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, pictured at Windsor Castle in April 2025, was arrested on Thursday.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Police officers who came for Britain’s fallen prince on his 66th birthday punctured the defining perception of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal: that wealthy elites are shielded from scrutiny because of who they are.
In America, accountability [still seems elusive].
It doesn’t get much more elite than being the brother of King Charles III or the favorite son — [according to insiders] — of late Queen Elizabeth II. But blue blood did not spare [Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor] from arrest in an investigation following the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
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The spectacle of [the former Prince Andrew] being taken on Thursday from his new, downsized quarters in the British countryside to the grubby indignity of a police station escalated the gravest controversy to rock the royal family in generations.
Mountbatten-Windsor was questioned over suspicion of misconduct in office related to his time as a UK trade envoy. Previously, police said they were reviewing claims he had shared sensitive information with Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor denied all prior wrongdoing but has not commented on the latest claims.
But his diminished reality was laid bare in the spare legalese of a police statement Thursday that said “a man in his sixties from Norfolk” had “been released under investigation.”
The principle that no one — not even the former Duke of York — is immune to the principle of equality before the law was reaffirmed in a statement by the King, notable for its icy distancing of the monarch from his brother.
“Let me state clearly: the law must take its course,” it said.
The US Capitol is reflected in water hours ahead of a press conference to discuss the Epstein Files Transparency Act on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on September 3, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Why accountability is lagging in the US
The first arrest of a British royal in nearly 400 years posed this question: If legal authorities in Britain and elsewhere in Europe can act independently and breach the protected circle around Epstein’s former network, why is there not a similar faith in the justice system in the US?
“Great Britain is holding its powerful and privileged to account. The United States of America should do the same,” Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.
In the United Kingdom, the machinery of public investigation appears to be functioning as intended. It’s harder to make that claim with confidence in the US given the [politicization of a justice system] that has prosecuted President Donald Trump’s opponents and a president who pardoned hundreds of people convicted of crimes linked to the January 6, 2021, riot.
The Trump DOJ had to be forced into every act of disclosure. And the only person offered legal relief so far is Ghislaine Maxwell, who gave testimony absolving the president of wrongdoing in his dealings with her former companion — and was moved to a [more lenient prison] to serve her sex crimes sentence.
Victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein react as US Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on
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