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A US congressional panel probing sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has formally written to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, once Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he participate in questioning as part of its investigation into Epstein’s illegal activities.

In a document released on Thursday, a California congressman, the senior Democrat on the House investigative committee, asked that King Charles III’s brother help with its investigation.

The official demand to provide testimony follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his HRH style and opted to vacate his rented residence in Windsor.

Files and Allegations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name appears in documents and travel logs subpoenaed from Epstein’s estate and made public by the committee. He has also been charged by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of abuse.

“The oversight committee will probe accusations of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request information on Epstein’s operations, associates, and connections based on the men’s enduring and well-documented friendship,” the committee said in a press release.

It requested information from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his association with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York detention facility in 2019. Andrew has consistently categorically denied any impropriety.

Details of the Communication

“It has been widely reported that your relationship with Mr Epstein started in 1999 and that you continued associating through and after his 2008 sentencing for procuring minors for commercial sex acts,” the letter said.

It stated further: “It has also been claimed that you traveled with Epstein to his New York home, the Queen’s estate 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, combined with the newly disclosed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further confirms our concern that you may have valuable information about the offenses committed by Mr Epstein and his accomplices.”

A statement regarding the letter said it was endorsed by 13 other Democrats on the committee and asks a reply by 20 November.

Previous Remarks and Cooperation

The letter follows a week after another Democrat on the committee commented: “Andrew should be asked to appear before the panel. The citizens deserves to know who was assaulting women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”

However, the congressman does not possess the power to legally require the duke and Congress itself cannot compel testimony from a non-US citizen.

In 2020, US authorities said that Mountbatten Windsor did not reply to US demands for an meeting. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that prosecutors and the FBI had approached Andrew’s lawyers to follow up on his previous pledge that he was “willing to help any relevant law enforcement agency”.

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

Demands for Transparency

The lawmaker said in a statement 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 justice for the victims. Oversight Democrats will not halt fighting for responsibility and openness for those affected of Epstein and his group of accomplices.”

Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing evidence to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as media coverage of released files, “it is essential that Andrew cooperates with the ongoing probe. If he is innocent, then he can prove his innocence.”

The lawmaker stated further: “And if not, our examination will demonstrate that, and the survivors will receive belated accountability. The monarchy’s actions removing Andrew of his honors indicate there is additional to this situation.”

The letter was sent on the same day the British king publicly removed Mountbatten Windsor of his HRH style. Charles III officially made the alteration – which had been declared a week ago – by issuing a “letters patent” which the crown office published in the Gazette, the UK’s government journal.