🔗 Share this article

A US congressional panel looking into sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he submit to a deposition as part of its probe into Epstein’s wrongdoings.

In a communication released on Thursday, a California congressman, the top Democrat on the House investigative committee, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother cooperate with its inquiry.

The formal request to respond to queries arrives a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his princely title and opted to give up his leased home in Windsor.

Records and Allegations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name features in records and travel logs secured from Epstein’s estate and made public by the committee. He has also been alleged by one of Epstein’s victims, the late Virginia Giuffre, of abuse.

“The panel will examine allegations of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request details on Epstein’s network, associates, and accomplices based on the men’s enduring and extensively reported friendship,” the committee said in a statement.

It sought particulars from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his friendship with Epstein, who killed himself in a New York prison cell in 2019. Andrew has repeatedly vehemently rejected any impropriety.

Details of the Communication

“It has been publicly reported that your association with Mr Epstein commenced in 1999 and that you remained close through and after his 2008 conviction for trafficking underage girls for prostitution,” the letter said.

It continued: “It has also been claimed that you traveled with Epstein to his New York residence, the Queen’s home at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s secluded island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been alleged of abusing young girls. This strong bond with Mr Epstein, along with the recently revealed 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further confirms our suspicion that you may have valuable information about the wrongdoings committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators.”

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 Assistance

The letter follows a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be asked to give evidence before the oversight committee. The people deserves to know who was harming women and minors alongside Epstein.”

However, the congressman does not possess the authority to legally require the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot compel evidence from a overseas individual.

In 2020, US officials said that Mountbatten Windsor neglected to reply to US requests for an meeting. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that lawyers and the FBI had reached out to Andrew’s attorneys to check on his public commitment that he was “willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.

“It’s fair for people to know whether Prince Andrew has followed through with that pledge,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “provided zero cooperation”.

Demands for Accountability

The congressman said in a comment that “affluent and influential men have avoided justice for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the opportunity to be honest and secure accountability for the survivors. Oversight Democrats will not halt fighting for answerability and openness for those affected of Epstein and his network of co-conspirators.”

Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after receiving testimony to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as media coverage of released files, “it is vital that Andrew works together with the ongoing investigation. If he is innocent, then he can vindicate himself.”

The lawmaker added: “And if not, our investigation will show that, and the affected individuals will receive belated accountability. The royal household’s actions stripping Andrew of his titles indicate there is further to this situation.”

The letter was issued on the same day the British king formally revoked Mountbatten Windsor of his princely title. Charles III publicly made the alteration – which had been declared a week ago – by issuing a “official document” which the royal office published in the Gazette, the UK’s official public record.