A potential new FBI director has zeroed in on the Jeffrey Epstein case — and it could spell disaster for Prince Andrew.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as FBI director, pledged to uncover and expose new details about notorious pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

During Patel’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., on January 30, the controversial former federal prosecutor and national security official assured that if confirmed he’ll “do everything to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened” with Epstein, who died by suicide at 66 in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The politically charged comments quickly reverberated across the pond. Amid calls for a fresh FBI probe into Epstein’s behavior and his ties to potential accomplices, a new report claims the late criminal’s old friend Prince Andrew, 65, is afraid to ever return to the States.

“He is terrified that if he goes to America he could be arrested, face civil action or be subpoenaed,” a source told Britain’s The Sun on February 3. “He’ll never risk going to America again.” In 2019, months after the financier’s shocking death, the Duke of York gave a now-infamous interview to the BBC’s Newsnight program in which he addressed his friendship with Epstein, which began in the ’90s. Andrew also insisted he’d never met Virginia Guiffre, 41, who’s long claimed Epstein forced her to have sex with the royal in 2001 when she was 17.

Andrew has denied Giuffre’s claims. He’s implied that a photo of them taken in 2001 could be fake. But in 2022, the duke reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre for a reported $16 million, ending a civil sexual assault lawsuit she’d filed against him.

The move came two years after Andrew was forced to step down as a senior working royal and weeks after the British navy veteran’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, stripped him of his military affiliations and patronages.

Sources Say the Ongoing Drama Could Put the Focus Back on Prince Andrew

The threat of an FBI probe isn’t the only reason Andrew’s faced renewed scrutiny in recent days. In 2019, he told Newsnight he’d cut ties with Epstein in December 2010. However new court docs seemingly reveal they were in contact longer than Andrew initially claimed: On January 31, emails disclosed in a legal filing made by Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority showed an email exchange between Epstein and “a member of the British royal family” believed to be Andrew. In February 2011, the royal allegedly wrote to Epstein, “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!” The latest drama is in many ways par for the course for Andrew. “He thought he’d put the Epstein scandal behind him,” a source previously told In Touch, but once again “he’s back in the spotlight — in a very bad way.”