#Barr says Jeffrey Epstein probe moves on with or without Prince Andrew

Attorney General William Barr said the FBI “definitely” wants to interview Prince Andrew about Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged fixer Ghislaine Maxwell — but that the investigation involving the late pedophile will proceed even without the royal’s cooperation, according to a report.

“Definitely the (Justice Department) wants to talk to Prince Andrew, that’s why the Southern District has been making efforts to communicate and to arrange an interview with him,” Barr said in an interview with ABC News.

“The department is communicating with him and made it clear that we’d like to interview him,” he added.

Federal prosecutors in the Big Apple have formally requested testimony from the Duke of York as part of the criminal probe into Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators, two sources familiar with the matter have told the outlet.

Ex-Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman last month criticized Andrew’s failure to cooperate with investigators.

“If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him,” said Berman, who stepped down after a standoff with the AG.

Andrew’s legal team insists that he has consistently offered to cooperate with the feds, saying last month in a statement that the prince had “on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ,” according to ABC News.

A source told the outlet that the feds asked Andrew for his cooperation in early January, and his lawyers responded by opening discussions about how he would provide the testimony.

They were left “slack jawed” when Berman later announced that Andrew had offered “zero cooperation,” according to ABC News, which reported that Audrey Strauss, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, also has appealed for Andrew’s testimony.

A source close to Andrew told ABC News that his team has “twice communicated with the DOJ in the last month, and to-date, we have had no response.”

The prince is said to have been rattled by the recent arrest of Maxwell, Epstein’s alleged procuress, on charges that include alleged sex crimes in her London townhouse — where the prince has separately been accused by an Epstein “sex slave” of sleeping with her when she was 17, the Mirror has reported.

Andrew has forcefully denied the allegations.

It’s unclear whether Maxwell will cooperate with prosecutors, but at least one lawyer who represents several of her accusers has suggested that Andrew could be implicated if she does.

Attorney Gloria Allred said at a press conference Monday that the prince should speak with federal prosecutors in New York before Maxwell does.

Barr, meanwhile, told ABC News that he has asked those responsible for Maxwell’s safety while locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to relay “specifically the protocols they’re following, and we have a number of redundancy systems to monitor the situation.”

Epstein committed suicide in his Manhattan jail cell 11 months ago as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges.

“I believe very strongly in that case and I was very proud of the work done by the department, the Southern District, on that case,” Barr told ABC News.

“And as you will recall, after he committed suicide, I said that I was confident that we would continue to pursue this case vigorously and — pursue anyone who’s complicit in it,” he added. “And so I’m very happy that we were able to get Miss Maxwell.”

The former British socialite is scheduled for a remote detention hearing on Tuesday.