Prince Andrew was seen inside the palatial New York home of Jeffrey Epstein getting a foot massage from  ‘two young well-dressed Russian women,’ according to an email exchange between the prominent U.S. literary agent John Brockman and one of his clients, the author and writer Evgeny Morozov.

Morozov, an American writer and researcher originally from Belarus who studies the political and social implications of technology, has published the email exchange in New Republic magazine, in an attempt to force Brockman to account for his friendship with Epstein.

Brockman’s intellectual network, The Edge Foundation, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from Epstein, 66, who killed himself in jail on 10 August in New York while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Morozov published an email from Brockman, dating from 2013, which runs as follows:

“Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire science philanthropist showed up at this weekend’s event by helicopter (with his beautiful young assistant from Belarus). He’ll be in Cambridge in a couple of weeks asked me who he should meet. You are one of the people I suggested and I told him I would send some links.

“He’s the guy who gave Harvard #30m to set up Martin Nowak. He’s been extremely generous in funding projects of many of our friends and clients. He also got into trouble and spent a year in jail in Florida.

“If he contacts you it’s probably worth your time to meet him as he’s extremely bright and interesting.

“Last time I visited his house (the largest private residence in NYC), I walked in to find him in a sweatsuit and a British guy in a suit with suspenders, getting foot massages from two young well-dressed Russian women. After grilling me for a while about cyber-security, the Brit, named Andy, was commenting on the Swedish authorities and the charges against Julian Assange. ‘We think they’re liberal in Sweden, but it’s more like Northern England as opposed to Southern Europe,’ he said. ‘In Monaco, Albert works 12 hours a day but at 9pm, when he goes out, he does whatever he wants, and nobody cares. But, if I do it, I’m in big trouble.’ At that point I realized that the recipient of Irina’s foot massage was his Royal Highness, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.

“Indeed, a week later, on a slow news day, the cover of the NY Post had a full-page photo of Jeffrey and Andrew walking in Central Park under the headline: “The Prince and the Perv.” (That was the end of Andrew’s role at the UK trade ambassador.)”

Buckingham Palace has previously said Andrew was appalled by recent revelations about Epstein. They declined to make any further comment on the contents of the new email to The Guardian on Thursday night but reiterated a previously proffered statement: “Any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.”