House Panel Seeks Interview with the Duke of York in Epstein Probe
A US congressional committee investigating pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, asking that he submit to an interview as part of its inquiry into Epstein’s criminal operations.
In a letter released on Thursday, a California congressman, the top Democrat on the House oversight panel, urged that King Charles III’s brother help with its inquiry.
The official demand to answer questions arrives a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his princely title and agreed to give up his leased home in Windsor.
Files and Allegations
Mountbatten Windsor’s name is listed in documents and flight logs subpoenaed from Epstein’s estate and made public by the committee. He has also been charged by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of misconduct.
“The oversight committee will investigate allegations of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request information on Epstein’s network, associates, and accomplices based on the men’s long-term and well-documented friendship,” the committee said in a press release.
It sought particulars from Mountbatten Windsor on details of his association with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail cell in 2019. Andrew has consistently categorically denied any misconduct.
Content of the Communication
“It has been publicly reported that your relationship with Mr Epstein commenced in 1999 and that you remained close through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for trafficking underage girls for sex work,” the letter said.
It continued: “It has also been reported that you journeyed with Epstein to his New York home, the Queen’s residence at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been alleged of assaulting young girls. This intimate friendship with Mr Epstein, combined with the freshly uncovered 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further supports our suspicion that you may have key insights about the offenses 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 requests a reply by 20 November.
Previous Comments and Collaboration
The letter comes a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be summoned to testify before the panel. The people has the right to know who was abusing women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”
However, the lawmaker does not possess the power to subpoena the duke and Congress itself cannot oblige statements from a overseas individual.
In 2020, US officials said that Mountbatten Windsor neglected to reply to US requests for an discussion. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that lawyers and the FBI had reached out to Andrew’s lawyers to check on his public commitment that he was “prepared to help any suitable law enforcement agency”.
“It’s just for people to know whether Prince Andrew has honored with that pledge,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “offered no cooperation”.
Calls for Transparency
The representative said in a announcement that “rich and well-connected men have escaped the law for far too long. Now, ex- Prince Andrew has the option to tell the truth and provide redress for the survivors. The committee will not halt pushing for answerability and transparency for survivors of Epstein and his gang of co-conspirators.”
Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after listening to accounts to the committee from Epstein’s victims, as well as media coverage of released files, “it is crucial that Andrew works together with the current probe. If he is not guilty, then he can vindicate himself.”
The lawmaker added: “And if not, our probe will reveal that, and the affected individuals will receive much-delayed redress. The Royal Family’s actions removing Andrew of his styles show there is further to this case.”
The letter was issued on the same day the British king publicly stripped Mountbatten Windsor of his HRH style. Charles III officially made the alteration – which had been revealed a week ago – by issuing a “letters patent” which the monarch’s office made public in the Gazette, the UK’s public registry.
