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A US congressional body investigating pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, asking that he participate in a deposition as part of its inquiry into Epstein’s criminal operations.

In a letter made public on Thursday, a US representative, the senior Democrat on the House investigative committee, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother cooperate with its investigation.

The formal request to answer questions arrives a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his princely title and consented to give up his rented residence in Windsor.

Files and Accusations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name appears in documents and aviation records subpoenaed from Epstein’s estate and made public by the committee. He has also been accused by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of misconduct.

“The oversight committee will probe accusations of abuse by Mountbatten Windsor, and will demand information on Epstein’s operations, network, and associates based on the men’s long-term and thoroughly recorded friendship,” the committee said in a statement.

It requested details from Mountbatten Windsor on details of his association with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York prison cell in 2019. Andrew has consistently strongly denied any misconduct.

Content of the Request

“It has been documented that your friendship with Mr Epstein started in 1999 and that you continued associating through and after his 2008 conviction for soliciting minors for commercial sex acts,” the letter said.

It added: “It has also been claimed that you went with Epstein to his New York residence, the Queen’s home at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s secluded island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been alleged of abusing minors. This intimate friendship with Mr Epstein, along with the freshly uncovered 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further supports our concern that you may have key insights about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his accomplices.”

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

Past Comments and Assistance

The letter comes a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be called to testify before the oversight committee. The citizens should be able to know who was harming women and young girls alongside Epstein.”

However, the lawmaker does not have the power to legally require the duke and Congress itself cannot force statements from a non-US citizen.

In 2020, US agencies said that Mountbatten Windsor failed to cooperate to US requests for an meeting. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that lawyers and the FBI had approached Andrew’s legal team to inquire on his public commitment that he was “prepared to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.

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

Appeals for Transparency

The representative said in a statement that “wealthy and well-connected men have avoided the law for far too long. Now, ex- Prince Andrew has the option to come clean and deliver redress for the victims. Oversight Democrats will not halt advocating for answerability and clarity for those affected of Epstein and his group of partners.”

Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after listening to testimony to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as media coverage of released files, “it is essential that Andrew assists with the active inquiry. If he is blameless, then he can clear his name.”

The lawmaker added: “And if not, our examination will reveal that, and the victims will receive belated justice. The monarchy’s actions taking away Andrew of his titles show there is further to this case.”

The letter was sent on the same day the British king formally revoked Mountbatten Windsor of his princely title. Charles III publicly made the adjustment – which had been revealed a week ago – by issuing a “royal decree” which the monarch’s office published in the Gazette, the UK’s official public record.