House Panel Requests Deposition with Andrew in Jeffrey Epstein Inquiry
A US congressional body looking into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has formally written to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, previously Britain’s Prince Andrew, requesting that he participate in a deposition as part of its investigation into Epstein’s wrongdoings.
In a letter published on Thursday, a California congressman, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, asked that King Charles III’s sibling help with its probe.
The written appeal to provide testimony follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his royal title and agreed to surrender his property in Windsor.
Documents and Claims
Mountbatten Windsor’s name is listed in documents and flight logs obtained from Epstein’s estate and made public by the committee. He has also been alleged by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of abuse.
“The panel will investigate allegations of abuse by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request details on Epstein’s activities, network, and associates based on the men’s long-term and thoroughly recorded friendship,” the committee said in a statement.
It demanded particulars from Mountbatten Windsor on details of his friendship with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York prison cell in 2019. Andrew has repeatedly categorically denied any wrongdoing.
Content of the Communication
“It has been widely reported that your association with Mr Epstein commenced in 1999 and that you continued associating through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for soliciting minors for sex work,” the letter said.
It added: “It has also been claimed that you went with Epstein to his New York home, the Queen’s home at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s personal island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been alleged of abusing minors. This intimate friendship with Mr Epstein, coupled with the recently revealed 2011 digital communication in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further confirms our concern that you may have key insights about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”
A announcement regarding the letter said it was endorsed by 13 other Democrats on the committee and asks a response by 20 November.
Earlier Comments and Cooperation
The letter comes a week after another Democrat on the committee commented: “Andrew should be called to testify before the oversight committee. The public should be able to know who was harming women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”
However, the congressman does not possess the power to subpoena the duke and Congress itself cannot compel evidence from a foreign national.
In 2020, US agencies said that Mountbatten Windsor did not cooperate to US appeals for an interview. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that authorities and the FBI had approached Andrew’s legal team to follow up on his public commitment that he was “ready to help any appropriate 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 “given no cooperation”.
Demands for Transparency
The lawmaker said in a announcement that “affluent and powerful men have evaded the law for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the option to come clean and deliver redress for the survivors. The committee will not halt pushing for answerability and clarity for those affected of Epstein and his group of accomplices.”
Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing testimony to the committee from Epstein’s victims, as well as media coverage of released files, “it is essential that Andrew works together with the ongoing probe. If he is not guilty, then he can clear his name.”
The lawmaker continued: “And if not, our investigation will reveal that, and the victims will receive long overdue accountability. The Royal Family’s actions stripping Andrew of his honors show there is further to this case.”
The letter was issued on the same day the British king publicly removed Mountbatten Windsor of his princely title. Charles III publicly made the alteration – which had been declared a week ago – by issuing a “official document” which the royal office released in the Gazette, the UK’s official public record.
