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A American legislative body looking into pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly Britain’s Prince Andrew, requesting that he submit to an interview as part of its inquiry into Epstein’s wrongdoings.

In a communication made public on Thursday, a California congressman, the leading Democrat on the House oversight panel, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother assist with its investigation.

The official demand to respond to queries comes a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his princely title and consented to give up his rented residence in Windsor.

Documents and Accusations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name features in records and flight logs secured from Epstein’s estate and made public by the committee. He has also been alleged by one of Epstein’s survivors, 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, associates, and connections based on the men’s enduring and extensively reported friendship,” the committee said in a announcement.

It sought details from Mountbatten Windsor on details of his association with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail cell in 2019. Andrew has consistently vehemently rejected any impropriety.

Details of the Letter

“It has been publicly reported that your relationship with Mr Epstein started in 1999 and that you continued associating through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for soliciting minors for sex work,” the letter said.

It continued: “It has also been claimed that you went with Epstein to his New York residence, the Queen’s residence at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been accused of harming underage individuals. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, coupled with the freshly uncovered 2011 digital communication 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 partners in crime.”

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

Earlier Statements and Collaboration

The letter follows a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be asked to give evidence before the panel. The people deserves to know who was abusing women and young girls alongside Epstein.”

However, the congressman does not possess the power to subpoena the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot oblige statements from a non-US citizen.

In 2020, US authorities said that Mountbatten Windsor neglected to reply to US appeals for an interview. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that authorities and the FBI had contacted Andrew’s legal team to check on his previous pledge that he was “prepared to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.

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

Appeals for Transparency

The lawmaker said in a comment that “rich and well-connected men have avoided the law for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the opportunity to tell the truth and provide accountability for the survivors. The committee will not halt fighting for answerability and transparency for survivors 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 public reporting of leaked documents, “it is crucial that Andrew assists with the ongoing investigation. If he is innocent, then he can vindicate himself.”

The lawmaker added: “And if not, our investigation will demonstrate that, and the affected individuals will receive much-delayed justice. The monarchy’s actions stripping Andrew of his titles suggest there is further to this story.”

The letter was issued on the same day the British king publicly removed Mountbatten Windsor of his HRH style. Charles III publicly made the change – which had been declared a week ago – by issuing a “letters patent” which the monarch’s office made public in the Gazette, the UK’s official public record.