AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We end today’s show with breaking news. In the United Kingdom, police have arrested former Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles, on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Authorities say they’re investigating a complaint over allegations that the former prince had shared confidential material with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The former prince was the U.K.’s trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.

AMY GOODMAN: Back in November, King Charles stripped his brother of his title as prince and duke of York, and evicted him from his royal residence over his relationship with Epstein.

We’re joined now by Michael Walker, contributing editor at Novara Media, where he hosts the organization’s flagship live news program Novara Live. Today is — I was going to say Prince Andrew’s, but it’s Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and he has been arrested on his 66th birthday. Talk about the significance of this.

MICHAEL WALKER: Yeah, I have to say that on our show we’re still calling him Prince Andrew, because I don’t think the royal family can get out of this so easily, just saying, “We’re taking the title off him. It’s got nothing to do with us.” They obviously knew he had a relationship for a long time before they stripped his title of that.

In terms of this particular case, it’s actually remarkably similar to the row — well, it’s more than a row, isn’t it? — the investigation into Peter Mandelson, which is that what these emails appear to have revealed is that when there were powerful men in positions of responsibility and influence, they used that influence, they used that access that they had, to forward on confidential information that sort of — that should have been kept secret, to Jeffrey Epstein.

In the case of Mandelson, that involved what was going on in 10 Downing Street. When it comes to Prince Andrew, it seems to be what was discussed on trade trips. So, emails indicate Andrew forwarded official confidential trip reports from Singapore, Vietnam and China to Epstein shortly after receiving them. So, that seems to be what the police are currently investigating. And their job is to judge whether this reaches the threshold of misconduct in public office.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Yeah, and it’s clear that misconduct is a really complicated offense, misconduct in public office. This is — I’m reading from the BBC, quoting the legal correspondent. It essentially boils down to an allegation that someone who was doing a job on behalf of the British public did something seriously wrong, knowing it to be wrong. But there are four elements or factors that the police must investigate. If you could elaborate on that and also tell us where has he gone and what comes next? Where was he taken?

MICHAEL WALKER: Well, so, he was taken to a police station for questioning. Now, people think that’s significant because he wouldn’t have known he was going to be arraigned. So often when it comes to crimes which were committed — well, I should say alleged crimes — investigations into alleged crimes committed in the past, you might get forewarning. You might get invited to speak to the police. Now, it seems they didn’t want to give him forewarning. I suppose there was an understanding that Andrew is someone who likes to prepare for interviews, and I suppose they wanted him potentially to be a bit more candid, to not have his lines prepared.

When it comes to the actual crime which he’s being investigated for, political journalists are sort of desperately trying to catch up on this, because it’s not something which has appeared in sort of political debate very often. It’s the sort of crime which, as far as I understand, tends to be leveled at people like prison officers. So it might be someone who’s working in a prison office — or, working in a prison, I should say — in a position of responsibility, and they help a prison officer — sorry, a prisoner speak to a gang member outside and potentially arrange for some sort of crime to be committed. So, I think normally you have a very high threshold, and it’s a bit more open and shut. What’s interesting here is that I’m not sure what they’ll be investigating, because we’ve all seen the emails. The question is just whether or not this meets this threshold. I suppose they’ll be discussing with Andrew whether or not he knew that what he did was a breach of his responsibility in that role.

AMY GOODMAN: You know, what’s astounding, Michael, is you have Andrew being arrested, and here in the United States we have not seen as much fallout. In fact, I think President Trump just said that the millions of pages of documents have exonerated him, though he was named over a thousand times. Next up could be — is that right? — the former British ambassador to the U.S., Mandelson, who also, interestingly, was a trade envoy, and there are questions about revealing information that was given over to Jeffrey Epstein.

MICHAEL WALKER: Yeah, I mean, I think what’s interesting here, and what’s disappointing to some people, actually, is obviously this is a story about sex trafficking, about the abuse of numerous women, and it seems like where justice might be brought, it’s on a different charge, which is sharing confidential information with a powerful person. In both cases, Mandelson and Prince Andrew, there are suggestions that maybe there were quid pro quos here. So, when it came to Mandelson, he was sharing this information which was market sensitive and which would have been useful to Epstein, and it seems that in return what he was getting was Epstein’s help in helping his lobbying firm after he left government, or getting a job with JPMorgan. These seem to be what he was considering. He didn’t end up getting a job with JPMorgan, but he was clearly, from the emails, angling for one.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Walker —

MICHAEL WALKER: With Andrew, we know that —

AMY GOODMAN: — we’re going to have to leave it there, but we thank you so much for being with us, with Novara Media — 

MICHAEL WALKER: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: — in London. And today marks Democracy Now!'s 30th anniversary on the air, our first show February 19th, 1996. We've got to show Nermeen, as well, here in this image. On Monday, we’ll be celebrating at Riverside Church in New York. Guests will include Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, Maria Ressa, Michael Stipe, Wynton Marsalis, Mosab Abu Toha, V., Hurray for the Riff Raff and more. We’ll be streaming the event live at democracynow.org. Happy anniversary, everyone!

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Happy anniversary, Amy!

AMY GOODMAN: Happy anniversary, Nermeen!