🔗 Share this article

A American legislative panel looking into pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, previously Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he participate in an interview as part of its probe into Epstein’s criminal operations.

In a letter made public on Thursday, a US representative, the leading Democrat on the House investigative committee, requested that King Charles III’s brother cooperate with its investigation.

The official demand to provide testimony arrives a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his HRH style and consented to surrender his rented residence in Windsor.

Records and Accusations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name is listed in documents and aviation records secured from Epstein’s estate and made public by the committee. He has also been alleged by one of Epstein’s survivors, the late Virginia Giuffre, of sexual assault.

“The committee will probe allegations of abuse by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request data on Epstein’s operations, associates, and connections based on the men’s longstanding and thoroughly recorded friendship,” the committee said in a statement.

It sought information from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his association with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York detention facility in 2019. Andrew has always vehemently rejected any impropriety.

Substance of the Request

“It has been widely reported that your relationship with Mr Epstein started in 1999 and that you continued associating through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for trafficking underage girls for sex work,” the letter said.

It stated further: “It has also been alleged that you traveled with Epstein to his New York residence, the Queen’s estate at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s secluded island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been accused of assaulting young girls. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, along with the newly disclosed 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further bolsters our concern that you may have valuable information about the wrongdoings committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”

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

Past Comments and Collaboration

The letter arrives a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be called to testify before the panel. The citizens has the right to know who was abusing women and young girls alongside Epstein.”

However, the lawmaker does not have the authority to subpoena the duke and Congress itself cannot compel evidence from a foreign national.

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

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

Appeals for Justice

The congressman said in a announcement that “rich and influential men have avoided justice for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the chance to tell the truth and secure accountability for the victims. We will not halt advocating for answerability and transparency for those affected of Epstein and his network of co-conspirators.”

Another supporter, a Virginia Democrat, said that after listening to testimony to the committee from Epstein’s accusers, as well as news accounts of leaked documents, “it is vital that Andrew assists with the current inquiry. If he is innocent, then he can clear his name.”

The lawmaker stated further: “And if not, our probe will demonstrate that, and the survivors will receive belated justice. The royal household’s actions removing Andrew of his honors show there is more to this case.”

The letter came on the same day the British king formally stripped Mountbatten Windsor of his royal title. Charles III officially made the adjustment – which had been declared a week ago – by issuing a “official document” which the crown office made public in the Gazette, the UK’s official public record.