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A US congressional committee looking into pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, previously Britain’s Prince Andrew, asking that he participate in a deposition as part of its inquiry into Epstein’s wrongdoings.

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

The formal request to provide testimony follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his princely title and opted to vacate his property in Windsor.

Files and Accusations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name features in records and flight logs obtained from Epstein’s estate and disclosed by the committee. He has also been accused by one of Epstein’s survivors, the late Virginia Giuffre, of sexual assault.

“The committee will probe allegations of abuse by Mountbatten Windsor, and will demand data on Epstein’s network, circle, and accomplices based on the men’s long-term and well-documented friendship,” the committee said in a press release.

It requested particulars from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his relationship with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York detention facility in 2019. Andrew has repeatedly categorically denied any wrongdoing.

Details of the Request

“It has been publicly reported that your relationship with Mr Epstein began in 1999 and that you stayed connected through and after his 2008 sentencing for soliciting minors for commercial sex acts,” the letter said.

It stated further: “It has also been reported that you journeyed with Epstein to his New York property, the Queen’s residence at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s personal island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been charged of harming underage individuals. This intimate friendship with Mr Epstein, along with the freshly uncovered 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further confirms our belief that you may have important details about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators.”

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

Earlier Comments and Assistance

The letter follows a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be summoned to give evidence before the committee. The citizens has the right to know who was harming women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”

However, the representative does not hold the ability to subpoena the former prince and Congress itself cannot oblige statements from a non-US citizen.

In 2020, US officials said that Mountbatten Windsor neglected to cooperate to US demands for an discussion. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that lawyers and the FBI had approached Andrew’s lawyers to inquire on his public commitment that he was “ready to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.

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

Appeals for Transparency

The lawmaker said in a announcement that “wealthy and powerful men have escaped the law for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the chance to come clean and deliver accountability for the victims. Oversight Democrats will not halt pushing for answerability and openness for victims of Epstein and his group of partners.”

Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after listening to evidence to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as public reporting of leaked documents, “it is crucial that Andrew assists with the ongoing probe. If he is innocent, then he can prove his innocence.”

The lawmaker added: “And if not, our investigation will show that, and the affected individuals will receive much-delayed redress. The royal household’s actions taking away Andrew of his honors show there is further to this case.”

The letter came on the same day the British king publicly removed Mountbatten Windsor of his royal title. Charles III formally made the adjustment – which had been declared a week ago – by issuing a “official document” which the royal office published in the Gazette, the UK’s government journal.