🔗 Share this article

A US congressional panel looking into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, previously Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he participate in questioning as part of its probe into Epstein’s criminal operations.

In a document made public on Thursday, a lawmaker, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, asked that King Charles III’s sibling help with its inquiry.

The official demand to answer questions comes a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his HRH style and opted to vacate his leased home in Windsor.

Files and Claims

Mountbatten Windsor’s name is listed in records and aviation records secured 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 probe allegations of wrongdoing by Mountbatten Windsor, and will seek data on Epstein’s operations, circle, and connections based on the men’s longstanding and well-documented friendship,” the committee said in a announcement.

It demanded information from Mountbatten Windsor on details of his friendship with Epstein, who killed himself in a New York prison cell in 2019. Andrew has always categorically denied any impropriety.

Details of the Communication

“It has been publicly reported that your relationship with Mr Epstein commenced in 1999 and that you continued associating through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for soliciting minors for sex work,” the letter said.

It continued: “It has also been claimed that you traveled 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 abusing minors. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, along with the recently revealed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further supports our concern that you may have valuable information about the wrongdoings committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators.”

A announcement regarding the letter said it was co-signed by 13 other Democrats on the committee and demands a answer by 20 November.

Earlier Comments and Collaboration

The letter arrives a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be asked to testify before the oversight committee. The public has the right to know who was abusing women and minors alongside Epstein.”

However, the congressman does not possess the power to subpoena the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot compel evidence from a foreign national.

In 2020, US authorities said that Mountbatten Windsor failed to reply to US appeals for an interview. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that authorities and the FBI had approached Andrew’s attorneys to follow up on his earlier promise that he was “prepared to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.

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

Appeals for Justice

The congressman said in a announcement that “affluent and well-connected men have evaded accountability for far too long. Now, ex- Prince Andrew has the opportunity to tell the truth and secure justice for the affected individuals. The committee will not cease fighting for answerability and openness for victims of Epstein and his gang of partners.”

Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing accounts to the committee from Epstein’s accusers, as well as news accounts of leaked documents, “it is essential that Andrew cooperates with the ongoing probe. If he is innocent, then he can vindicate himself.”

The lawmaker continued: “And if not, our examination will demonstrate that, and the survivors will receive belated accountability. The monarchy’s actions taking away Andrew of his titles indicate there is further to this case.”

The letter was issued on the same day the British king officially stripped Mountbatten Windsor of his princely title. Charles III publicly made the alteration – which had been revealed a week ago – by issuing a “royal decree” which the monarch’s office made public in the Gazette, the UK’s government journal.