House Committee Requests Interview with Andrew in Epstein Probe
A US congressional panel probing sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has reached out to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he participate in a deposition as part of its probe into Epstein’s wrongdoings.
In a communication released on Thursday, a US representative, the senior Democrat on the House investigative committee, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother cooperate with its inquiry.
The written appeal to answer questions follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his royal title and consented to surrender his leased home in Windsor.
Documents and Claims
Mountbatten Windsor’s name is listed in records and travel logs secured from Epstein’s estate and disclosed by the committee. He has also been accused by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of misconduct.
“The committee will examine claims of wrongdoing by Mountbatten Windsor, and will demand data on Epstein’s activities, network, and connections based on the men’s enduring and extensively reported friendship,” the committee said in a statement.
It requested details from Mountbatten Windsor on details of his relationship with Epstein, who killed himself in a New York prison cell in 2019. Andrew has repeatedly strongly denied any impropriety.
Details of the Request
“It has been publicly reported that your association with Mr Epstein began in 1999 and that you continued associating through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for soliciting minors for commercial sex acts,” the letter said.
It added: “It has also been claimed that you went with Epstein to his New York residence, the Queen’s residence at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been charged of assaulting minors. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, along with the newly disclosed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further bolsters our suspicion that you may have key insights about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his accomplices.”
A notification regarding the letter said it was co-signed by 13 other Democrats on the committee and demands a response by 20 November.
Previous Comments and Assistance
The letter comes a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be asked to give evidence before the oversight committee. The citizens deserves to know who was abusing women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”
However, the congressman does not hold the power to compel the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot compel testimony from a non-US citizen.
In 2020, US agencies said that Mountbatten Windsor failed to reply to US requests for an discussion. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that prosecutors and the FBI had reached out to Andrew’s legal team to follow up on his previous pledge that he was “willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.
“It’s just for people to know whether Prince Andrew has followed through with that public commitment,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “provided no cooperation”.
Appeals for Transparency
The representative said in a announcement that “wealthy and influential men have avoided the law for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the opportunity to come clean and secure accountability for the victims. We will not cease advocating for accountability and clarity for victims of Epstein and his group of accomplices.”
Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after listening to testimony to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as public reporting of disclosed papers, “it is vital that Andrew works together with the active inquiry. If he is innocent, then he can vindicate himself.”
The lawmaker stated further: “And if not, our investigation will reveal that, and the survivors will receive much-delayed justice. The monarchy’s actions stripping Andrew of his styles suggest there is additional to this situation.”
The letter was sent on the same day the British king publicly stripped Mountbatten Windsor of his HRH style. Charles III officially made the adjustment – which had been announced a week ago – by issuing a “official document” which the monarch’s office released in the Gazette, the UK’s public registry.
