House Panel Requests Questioning with Prince Andrew in Epstein Investigation

A American legislative committee looking into sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he participate in an interview as part of its investigation into Epstein’s wrongdoings.

In a document released on Thursday, a California congressman, the senior Democrat on the House investigative committee, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother assist with its probe.

The written appeal to provide testimony follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was relieved of his HRH style and agreed to vacate his leased home in Windsor.

Files and Accusations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name appears in documents and flight logs subpoenaed from Epstein’s estate and made public by the committee. He has also been accused by one of Epstein’s victims, the late Virginia Giuffre, of misconduct.

“The committee will probe accusations of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request data on Epstein’s operations, circle, and connections based on the men’s longstanding and extensively reported friendship,” the committee said in a statement.

It requested information from Mountbatten Windsor on particulars of his friendship with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York prison cell in 2019. Andrew has consistently categorically denied any impropriety.

Details of the Communication

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

It stated further: “It has also been reported that you journeyed with Epstein to his New York property, the Queen’s estate at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been accused of abusing underage individuals. This intimate friendship with Mr Epstein, coupled with the newly disclosed 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further bolsters our belief that you may have valuable information about the offenses committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”

A announcement regarding the letter said it was endorsed by 13 other Democrats on the committee and requests a answer by 20 November.

Past Remarks and Collaboration

The letter arrives a week after another Democrat on the committee commented: “Andrew should be summoned to give evidence before the panel. The public deserves to know who was harming women and minors alongside Epstein.”

However, the lawmaker does not have the ability to subpoena the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot oblige evidence from a foreign national.

In 2020, US officials said that Mountbatten Windsor did not respond to US appeals for an discussion. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that lawyers and the FBI had contacted Andrew’s legal team to inquire on his public commitment that he was “ready 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 zero cooperation”.

Demands for Accountability

The representative said in a comment that “rich and well-connected men have evaded justice for far too long. Now, former Prince Andrew has the option to tell the truth and secure redress for the victims. We will not cease advocating for answerability and clarity for victims of Epstein and his gang of co-conspirators.”

Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after listening to evidence to the committee from Epstein’s victims, as well as public reporting of released files, “it is essential that Andrew cooperates with the ongoing probe. If he is blameless, then he can vindicate himself.”

The lawmaker continued: “And if not, our probe will demonstrate that, and the survivors will receive belated redress. The royal household’s actions removing Andrew of his titles suggest there is more to this situation.”

The letter was sent on the same day the British king publicly stripped Mountbatten Windsor of his princely title. Charles III publicly made the change – which had been declared a week ago – by issuing a “official document” which the monarch’s office released in the Gazette, the UK’s official public record.