What did the Royal Family know and when?

[LifeIsTooShort247]

With everything that has emerged about Andrew and Epstein, and now the allegations concerning Thomas Markle, I think there are some much bigger questions about what the Royal Family and Palace officials knew, when they knew it, and what they did with that information.

We are looking at two very different situations involving serious allegations of sexual abuse. One concerns a member of the Royal Family itself, Andrew, and the other concerns the father of someone who married into it, Thomas Markle.
In Andrew's case, there are still so many unanswered questions about the extent of the late Queen's knowledge, the protection he received over the years and the role played by senior courtiers. Who knew what, how far back did that knowledge go, and who made the decisions about how matters were handled?

Now with Thomas Markle. What I find particularly interesting is that the Metropolitan Police have confirmed the letter was passed to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in January 2019, rather than simply being handed privately to Meghan. At that time, Harry and Meghan were still part of the Kensington Palace household structure, which they shared with William and Catherine. Jason Knauf was communications secretary for both couples.

Given the seriousness and sensitivity of the allegations, surely it is reasonable to question whether the matter was discussed with senior Palace officials or brought to the attention of senior members of the Royal Family?

Who within the office received the correspondence? Who handled it? Was Jason Knauf aware? Were William and Catherine briefed? Did the Queen or her private secretary know anything about it?

We don't know the answers, and I'm not suggesting that everyone necessarily knew. But that is precisely the point.

The circumstances involving Andrew are different, but both situations raise questions about how sensitive information was handled within the royal institution.

What did the Royal Family know, when did they know it, and what did they do with that knowledge?

Surely these are questions worth asking of the institution with regards to both situations.

Then the last thing the police would do is show her the letter, because it would taint any evidence she could provide.

disagree @queenofarles A plausible scenario is that the letter was opened by a PA, the PA discussed it with Meghan, and Meghan took charge of it and said 'no further action' because at that point it didn't suit her to have it made public
So why would she have kept the letter when the Met threw their copy away?

This is a made up scenario. The letter was passed to the Met royal protection team. There will be formal processes in place about who sensitive information is passed to. It won't be up to one pa to decide that.

Exactly.

And it was up to the Met to pursue the matter with police forces in the jurisdiction/s in which Markle Sr lived.

The question is whether the met royal protection team did not forward the letter about Thomas to other jurisdictions because the royal family asked them not to.

You have no idea if the RF ever got can heard about it. But what is clear is that Harry and Megan certainly were aware of it and have been for a number of years.

Yes they have been. And?

Well it seems strange to me that you are trying to pass the responsibility to the RF and you are making up scenarios to make the RF somehow guilty by association when they have nothing to do with Thomas Markle.

I don't see anyone passing off responsibility to the RF. However its right to ask what they knew, it does seem probable someone else knew so who? End of the day the MET bear the responsibility which is why they are now being investigated. But since many people seem to think Meghan should of done more and now we hear it was passed to her office then other people will have known - so who? Because if they knew surely then its only right to say they should of acted too.

Of course they are. You only have to read the thread to see that. There is no proof whatsoever that the Royal family know whereas Harry and Megan were informed as verified by the MET police

As verified by the MET it went to their office too so what staff knew? Did any if them also raise this with any other RF member? We might not know but its perfectly okay to ask the question.

A lot of people on this thread are claiming the RF saw the letter or somehow knew about it. There is no proof this happened. But please feel free to provide it if you have it.

Ah the Trinity of Truth !

What did the Royal family know and when? Nothing according to the Times latest article.

Despite the seriousness of the claims — and the possible reputational risk they could pose to the royal family — several key players at Kensington Palace have indicated that they were kept out of the loop.
They include Samantha Cohen, a former aide to Queen Elizabeth II who was Meghan and Harry’s private secretary at the time.
Jason Knauf, who was joint communications secretary to the Sussexes and Cambridges, is also thought to have been unaware of the Loveless letter; as was Simon Case, William and Catherine’s private secretary, who later served as cabinet secretary to four prime ministers.

One source said of Meghan and Harry: “They were very private and tended not to share stuff with others.”

Aides to Charles then Prince of Wales, are also thought to have been kept in the dark about the allegations against Meghan’s father. Had they been aware, it is likely that they would have warned the media to be cautious about reporting around her father

Met chiefs including Cressida Dick, then commissioner, and Neil Basu, then assistant commissioner for specialist operations, who oversaw royal protection, were not informed about Loveless’s letter. Had they known about the allegations, it is very possible that they would have instructed officers to inform their counterparts at the FBI and police in Thailand and the Philippines.

Well that’s so amazing that all the big-wigs have found themselves ‘innocent’ all at the same time and with no need for the IOPC independent investigation announced yesterday to be carried out.

Such a relief. Imagine all the wasted money of an independent enquiry - much easier to let the two institutions call it without investigating…..

Thank goodness for that. As you were.

Sorry to pour cold water on this thread and spoil your fun and nowhere does it say the investigation has been cancelled.

👏 , truth is important, getting carried away with supposition and gossip isn’t.

I know it doesn’t - it’s my sarcasm…..it’s not needed now because the big-wigs have since stepped it to tell us it’s all clean as a whistle!

Or perhaps to clarify a misunderstanding or false assumption!

Unfortunately for some on this thread the information that has been confirmed to be true is that the royal security officers in the met passed the letter onto H&M and it went no further, It is now coming out that they kept this information to themselves and didn’t inform anyone else within the Palace or the Met, so no Palace conspiracy, no Palace cover up and no secret handshakes.

They probably asked Charles and he said this. So case closed. Because the royals never lie.

Let us remember once again that, although the Cambridge and Sussex offices were not officially separate at that time, in practice they effectively were. Given that the Sussexes were already prone to making a fuss over the slightest thing, it is doubtful that their staff would have allowed anyone outside their own circle to access their correspondence or messages. It is also fair to assume that the Cambridge staff, for their part, would have wanted to avoid any complications.
It seems entirely plausible to me that the letter went directly into Meghan’s hands (and perhaps Harry’s? We don’t know, he's silent).
That said, if the Royal Family was aware of the matter, they would have had several opportunities to use the information.
For example, after the interview with Oprah, "Spare", or the Netflix serie... It would have been a magnificent distraction strategy . The public might wonder why they talked about so many things (some even false) while omitting such a serious topic.
And considering how they spoke about Thomas Sr. with Oprah—she was a "daddy’s girl" and lost her father, as Harry dramatically put it, because he was associated with the Royal Family—having the Palace leak the accusations would leave them completely exposed.
Or better yet, as a diversionary tactic—much like when Andrew was making headlines, or when the out-of-court settlement was reached. It would have been a fantastic smokescreen, considering the current media coverage.
And, on the other hand, if the Royal Family had wanted to bury the whole affair, they would have already made those infamous boxes of evidence disappear...

Don’t be so ridiculous. If the RF knew and chose to leak that they knew it would make them as bad as MM if not worse - compromising an !investigation’, utilising the allegations of sexual violation of hundreds of children to score PR points, underhand leaking and briefing the media, not following up on an ‘investigation’ etc

It's completely outwith the Mets jurisdiction.
Unless the letter had actual evidence with it, it could be written off as malicious gossip.

However here's what I'm curious about.
It's often been said that Meghan was a Yacht Girl, was her Dad part of Epsteins empire?

Was he supplying Epstein with images and children, young women?

Total speculation. Not worth anything.