House Committee Seeks Questioning with the Duke of York in Epstein Investigation
A American legislative committee investigating sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he undergo a deposition as part of its probe into Epstein’s wrongdoings.
In a document made public on Thursday, a lawmaker, the leading Democrat on the House investigative committee, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother assist with its probe.
The written appeal to answer questions arrives a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his royal title and agreed to give up his property in Windsor.
Records and Accusations
Mountbatten Windsor’s name appears in documents and travel logs obtained 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 probe accusations of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will demand details on Epstein’s activities, associates, and accomplices based on the men’s enduring and thoroughly recorded friendship,” the committee said in a press release.
It demanded details from Mountbatten Windsor on details of his association with Epstein, who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019. Andrew has repeatedly vehemently rejected any misconduct.
Details of the Letter
“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 continued: “It has also been alleged 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 abusing young girls. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, combined with the recently revealed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further supports our concern that you may have important details about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”
A statement regarding the letter said it was co-signed by 13 other Democrats on the committee and asks a answer by 20 November.
Earlier Comments and Collaboration
The letter comes a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be summoned to appear before the oversight committee. The public deserves to know who was abusing women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”
However, the lawmaker does not possess the power to compel the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot compel evidence from a non-US citizen.
In 2020, US authorities said that Mountbatten Windsor did not reply to US demands for an meeting. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that prosecutors and the FBI had reached out to Andrew’s attorneys to check on his earlier promise that he was “prepared to help any relevant law enforcement agency”.
“It’s reasonable 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”.
Calls for Justice
The congressman said in a announcement that “wealthy and influential men have avoided accountability for far too long. Now, former Prince Andrew has the chance to come clean and deliver redress for the victims. The committee will not stop advocating for responsibility and openness for those affected of Epstein and his group of co-conspirators.”
Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after receiving evidence to the committee from Epstein’s victims, as well as media coverage of leaked documents, “it is essential that Andrew works together with the current investigation. If he is not guilty, then he can vindicate himself.”
The lawmaker stated further: “And if not, our examination will demonstrate that, and the affected individuals will receive much-delayed justice. The royal household’s actions taking away Andrew of his styles show there is additional to this situation.”
The letter was sent on the same day the British king formally stripped Mountbatten Windsor of his princely title. Charles III formally made the change – which had been declared a week ago – by issuing a “royal decree” which the monarch’s office released in the Gazette, the UK’s government journal.