🔗 Share this article

A American legislative panel probing pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has reached out to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he undergo an interview as part of its inquiry into Epstein’s criminal operations.

In a communication made public on Thursday, a California congressman, the senior Democrat on the House oversight panel, requested that King Charles III’s brother assist with its probe.

The written appeal to provide testimony comes a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his royal title and opted to give up his property in Windsor.

Files and Allegations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name appears in documents and flight logs subpoenaed from Epstein’s estate and disclosed by the committee. He has also been charged by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of sexual assault.

“The panel will investigate allegations of abuse by Mountbatten Windsor, and will seek data on Epstein’s network, associates, and associates based on the men’s long-term and well-documented friendship,” the committee said in a statement.

It demanded information from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his relationship with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York detention facility in 2019. Andrew has repeatedly vehemently rejected any misconduct.

Substance of the Request

“It has been publicly reported that your friendship with Mr Epstein commenced in 1999 and that you remained close through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for procuring minors for commercial sex acts,” the letter said.

It continued: “It has also been reported that you went with Epstein to his New York property, the Queen’s estate at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s secluded island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been charged of assaulting underage individuals. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, combined with the newly disclosed 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further confirms our belief that you may have important details about the offenses committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”

A notification regarding the letter said it was co-signed by 13 other Democrats on the committee and asks a reply by 20 November.

Earlier Remarks and Cooperation

The letter follows a week after another Democrat on the committee stated: “Andrew should be summoned to appear before the panel. The public deserves to know who was assaulting women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”

However, the congressman does not hold the power to subpoena the duke and Congress itself cannot oblige statements from a non-US citizen.

In 2020, US authorities said that Mountbatten Windsor did not cooperate to US demands for an discussion. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that lawyers and the FBI had approached Andrew’s lawyers to check on his previous pledge that he was “prepared to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.

“It’s fair for people to know whether Prince Andrew has fulfilled with that pledge,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “given absolutely no cooperation”.

Demands for Transparency

The representative said in a statement that “affluent and powerful men have escaped accountability for far too long. Now, ex- Prince Andrew has the chance to tell the truth and secure accountability for the survivors. Oversight Democrats will not cease pushing for responsibility and transparency for survivors of Epstein and his network of accomplices.”

Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after receiving evidence to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as media coverage of disclosed papers, “it is vital that Andrew works together with the active investigation. If he is blameless, then he can clear his name.”

The lawmaker continued: “And if not, our probe will show that, and the victims will receive long overdue accountability. The royal household’s actions stripping Andrew of his titles suggest there is further to this case.”

The letter came on the same day the British king formally stripped Mountbatten Windsor of his royal title. Charles III formally made the alteration – which had been revealed a week ago – by issuing a “royal decree” which the crown office released in the Gazette, the UK’s government journal.