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A US congressional panel investigating sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has reached out to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, requesting that he submit to a deposition as part of its investigation into Epstein’s illegal activities.

In a document released on Thursday, a US representative, the top Democrat on the House investigative committee, requested that King Charles III’s brother cooperate with its investigation.

The official demand to respond to queries comes a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his princely title and agreed to surrender his leased home in Windsor.

Documents and Claims

Mountbatten Windsor’s name appears in records and travel logs secured 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 oversight committee will examine allegations of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will demand data on Epstein’s activities, circle, and connections based on the men’s enduring and thoroughly recorded friendship,” the committee said in a press release.

It sought details from Mountbatten Windsor on particulars of his friendship with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail cell in 2019. Andrew has always categorically denied any impropriety.

Details of the Letter

“It has been publicly reported that your association with Mr Epstein began in 1999 and that you stayed connected through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for procuring minors for sex work,” the letter said.

It added: “It has also been alleged that you journeyed with Epstein to his New York property, the Queen’s home at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been alleged of abusing young girls. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, coupled with the freshly uncovered 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further supports our suspicion that you may have important details about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”

A announcement regarding the letter said it was co-signed by 13 other Democrats on the committee and requests a reply by 20 November.

Earlier Statements and Assistance

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

However, the representative does not hold the power to legally require the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot compel statements from a non-US citizen.

In 2020, US agencies said that Mountbatten Windsor neglected to reply to US requests for an interview. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that prosecutors and the FBI had reached out to Andrew’s legal team to inquire on his previous pledge that he was “ready to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.

“It’s reasonable for people to know whether Prince Andrew has followed through with that assurance,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “provided no cooperation”.

Demands for Justice

The congressman said in a comment that “rich and powerful men have evaded the law for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the option to tell the truth and deliver redress for the victims. The committee will not halt advocating for responsibility and openness for survivors of Epstein and his network of accomplices.”

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

The lawmaker added: “And if not, our examination will demonstrate that, and the survivors will receive much-delayed justice. The royal household’s actions taking away Andrew of his honors show there is additional to this case.”

The letter came on the same day the British king formally removed Mountbatten Windsor of his HRH style. Charles III officially made the alteration – which had been announced a week ago – by issuing a “letters patent” which the monarch’s office released in the Gazette, the UK’s public registry.