Congressional Panel Requests Questioning with the Duke of York in Jeffrey Epstein Investigation

A American legislative body looking into sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly Britain’s Prince Andrew, requesting that he undergo questioning as part of its investigation into Epstein’s illegal activities.

In a communication released on Thursday, a lawmaker, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, urged that King Charles III’s brother assist with its probe.

The written appeal to respond to queries comes a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his HRH style and agreed to give up his property in Windsor.

Files and Allegations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name appears in records and flight logs subpoenaed from Epstein’s estate and publicly released by the committee. He has also been charged by one of Epstein’s survivors, the late Virginia Giuffre, of sexual assault.

“The oversight committee will probe allegations of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will demand data on Epstein’s operations, circle, and accomplices based on the men’s enduring and thoroughly recorded friendship,” the committee said in a announcement.

It requested information from Mountbatten Windsor on details of his association with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York prison cell in 2019. Andrew has consistently categorically denied any impropriety.

Content of the Request

“It has been publicly reported that your association with Mr Epstein started 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 alleged that you journeyed 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 charged of abusing minors. This intimate friendship with Mr Epstein, coupled with the newly disclosed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further confirms our suspicion that you may have important details about the wrongdoings committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”

A announcement regarding the letter said it was supported by 13 other Democrats on the committee and asks a answer by 20 November.

Earlier Statements and Cooperation

The letter arrives a week after another Democrat on the committee stated: “Andrew should be called to give evidence before the committee. The people deserves to know who was abusing women and minors alongside Epstein.”

However, the representative does not have the ability to legally require the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot force evidence from a overseas individual.

In 2020, US officials said that Mountbatten Windsor neglected to cooperate to US demands 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 inquire on his public commitment that he was “willing to help any relevant law enforcement agency”.

“It’s just for people to know whether Prince Andrew has fulfilled with that pledge,” 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 influential men have evaded justice for far too long. Now, ex- Prince Andrew has the option to come clean and secure redress for the affected individuals. The committee will not halt pushing for responsibility and clarity for those affected of Epstein and his group of partners.”

Another supporter, a Virginia Democrat, said that after listening to evidence to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as media coverage of disclosed papers, “it is crucial that Andrew cooperates with the active inquiry. If he is blameless, then he can vindicate himself.”

The lawmaker stated further: “And if not, our probe will show that, and the victims will receive long overdue justice. The Royal Family’s actions taking away Andrew of his honors suggest there is additional to this situation.”

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