House Committee Asks for Questioning with the Duke of York in Jeffrey Epstein Inquiry

A US congressional panel probing pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has formally written to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, previously Britain’s Prince Andrew, requesting that he participate in questioning as part of its inquiry into Epstein’s criminal operations.

In a letter published on Thursday, a US representative, the senior Democrat on the House oversight panel, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother help with its investigation.

The formal request to respond to queries follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was relieved of his HRH style and agreed to surrender his leased home in Windsor.

Documents and Allegations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name features in records and flight logs obtained from Epstein’s estate and publicly released by the committee. He has also been charged by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of misconduct.

“The committee will examine claims of wrongdoing by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request data on Epstein’s operations, circle, and associates based on the men’s long-term and thoroughly recorded friendship,” the committee said in a statement.

It requested information from Mountbatten Windsor on particulars of his friendship with Epstein, who killed himself in a New York detention facility in 2019. Andrew has repeatedly strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Substance of the Communication

“It has been publicly reported that your association with Mr Epstein began in 1999 and that you remained close through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for soliciting minors for prostitution,” the letter said.

It continued: “It has also been alleged that you journeyed with Epstein to his New York property, the Queen’s residence at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been charged of harming young girls. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, coupled with the newly disclosed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further bolsters our suspicion that you may have important details about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”

A notification regarding the letter said it was supported by 13 other Democrats on the committee and requests a response by 20 November.

Previous Statements and Collaboration

The letter comes a week after another Democrat on the committee commented: “Andrew should be asked to give evidence before the committee. The people has the right to know who was abusing women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”

However, the representative does not have the ability to subpoena the former prince and Congress itself cannot force statements from a overseas individual.

In 2020, US agencies said that Mountbatten Windsor neglected to respond to US requests for an meeting. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that authorities and the FBI had approached Andrew’s lawyers to follow up on his previous pledge that he was “ready to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.

“It’s just for people to know whether Prince Andrew has fulfilled with that assurance,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “given no cooperation”.

Demands for Transparency

The congressman said in a statement that “rich and powerful men have evaded justice for far too long. Now, ex- Prince Andrew has the opportunity to come clean and provide justice for the victims. We will not cease pushing for responsibility and openness for victims of Epstein and his group of co-conspirators.”

Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing evidence to the committee from Epstein’s victims, as well as media coverage of leaked documents, “it is essential that Andrew assists with the current probe. If he is blameless, then he can clear his name.”

The lawmaker added: “And if not, our investigation will reveal that, and the victims will receive long overdue justice. The royal household’s actions removing Andrew of his honors suggest there is further to this case.”

The letter was issued on the same day the British king formally removed Mountbatten Windsor of his HRH style. Charles III publicly made the change – which had been revealed a week ago – by issuing a “letters patent” which the royal office released in the Gazette, the UK’s government journal.