🔗 Share this article House Panel Requests Questioning with Prince Andrew in Epstein Probe A US congressional panel investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he submit to an interview as part of its probe into Epstein’s criminal operations. In a letter published on Thursday, a US representative, the leading Democrat on the House investigative committee, urged that King Charles III’s sibling help with its investigation. The official demand to answer questions arrives a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his princely title and agreed to give up his property in Windsor. Records and Accusations Mountbatten Windsor’s name is listed in records and flight logs 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 misconduct. “The oversight committee will examine accusations of wrongdoing by Mountbatten Windsor, and will demand details on Epstein’s operations, circle, and connections based on the men’s longstanding and well-documented friendship,” the committee said in a press release. It sought information from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his relationship 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 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 sex work,” the letter said. It stated further: “It has also been alleged that you journeyed with Epstein to his New York residence, the Queen’s home at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been alleged of abusing underage individuals. This strong bond with Mr Epstein, coupled with the recently revealed 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further bolsters our belief that you may have important details about the offenses 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 asks a response by 20 November. Past Comments and Cooperation The letter follows a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be asked to give evidence before the panel. The public has the right to know who was assaulting women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.” However, the representative does not have the authority to compel the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot oblige evidence from a non-US citizen. In 2020, US agencies said that Mountbatten Windsor did not respond to US demands for an meeting. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that authorities and the FBI had contacted Andrew’s lawyers to follow up on his earlier promise that he was “ready to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”. “It’s reasonable for people to know whether Prince Andrew has followed through with that assurance,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “offered zero cooperation”. Demands for Transparency The congressman said in a announcement that “wealthy and well-connected men have evaded the law for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the chance to be honest and deliver justice for the affected individuals. Oversight Democrats will not cease fighting for answerability and clarity for survivors of Epstein and his gang of accomplices.” Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing evidence to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as news accounts of leaked documents, “it is vital that Andrew cooperates with the active probe. If he is not guilty, then he can vindicate himself.” The lawmaker continued: “And if not, our investigation will demonstrate that, and the affected individuals will receive belated redress. The royal household’s actions stripping Andrew of his titles suggest there is additional to this story.” The letter was sent on the same day the British king officially stripped Mountbatten Windsor of his princely title. Charles III publicly made the change – which had been announced a week ago – by issuing a “letters patent” which the monarch’s office released in the Gazette, the UK’s public registry.