House Panel Asks for Questioning with Andrew in Epstein Inquiry
A American legislative panel looking into pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, requesting that he undergo a deposition as part of its inquiry into Epstein’s illegal activities.
In a letter released on Thursday, a lawmaker, the leading Democrat on the House oversight committee, requested that King Charles III’s younger brother assist with its probe.
The official demand to respond to queries follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his HRH style and agreed to surrender his leased home in Windsor.
Documents and Claims
Mountbatten Windsor’s name appears in records and travel logs obtained from Epstein’s estate and publicly released by the committee. He has also been accused by one of Epstein’s survivors, the late Virginia Giuffre, of misconduct.
“The panel will investigate accusations of abuse by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request information on Epstein’s activities, network, and connections based on the men’s longstanding and extensively reported friendship,” the committee said in a statement.
It demanded particulars from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his friendship with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York detention facility in 2019. Andrew has consistently vehemently rejected any misconduct.
Substance of the Request
“It has been widely reported that your relationship with Mr Epstein commenced in 1999 and that you remained close through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for procuring minors for commercial sex acts,” the letter said.
It added: “It has also been claimed that you went with Epstein to his New York home, the Queen’s estate at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s personal island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been charged of assaulting underage individuals. This intimate friendship with Mr Epstein, combined with the recently revealed 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further bolsters our concern that you may have important details about the wrongdoings committed by Mr Epstein and his accomplices.”
A notification regarding the letter said it was supported by 13 other Democrats on the committee and asks a answer by 20 November.
Previous Remarks and Collaboration
The letter arrives a week after another Democrat on the committee commented: “Andrew should be asked to testify before the oversight committee. The people deserves to know who was harming women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”
However, the representative does not possess the authority to compel the duke and Congress itself cannot compel statements from a overseas individual.
In 2020, US authorities said that Mountbatten Windsor did not 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 approached Andrew’s lawyers to check on his previous pledge that he was “prepared to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.
“It’s reasonable for people to know whether Prince Andrew has fulfilled with that assurance,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “offered zero cooperation”.
Demands for Justice
The congressman said in a announcement that “rich and well-connected men have escaped accountability for far too long. Now, ex- Prince Andrew has the option to tell the truth and deliver redress for the affected individuals. The committee will not stop pushing for responsibility and openness for survivors of Epstein and his group of co-conspirators.”
Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing testimony to the committee from Epstein’s victims, as well as public reporting of leaked documents, “it is vital that Andrew works together with the active probe. If he is blameless, then he can vindicate himself.”
The lawmaker continued: “And if not, our investigation will demonstrate that, and the affected individuals will receive long overdue justice. The royal household’s actions stripping Andrew of his styles show there is more to this story.”
The letter was issued on the same day the British king officially revoked Mountbatten Windsor of his HRH style. Charles III formally made the alteration – which had been announced a week ago – by issuing a “official document” which the crown office made public in the Gazette, the UK’s public registry.
