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A US congressional panel looking into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, previously Britain’s Prince Andrew, requesting that he submit to a deposition as part of its probe into Epstein’s wrongdoings.

In a document published on Thursday, a US representative, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, urged that King Charles III’s sibling cooperate with its inquiry.

The written appeal to answer questions follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his HRH style and agreed to vacate his leased home in Windsor.

Records and Allegations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name features in documents and flight logs secured from Epstein’s estate and disclosed by the committee. He has also been accused by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of abuse.

“The oversight committee will investigate claims of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will demand information on Epstein’s network, network, and connections based on the men’s enduring and extensively reported friendship,” the committee said in a statement.

It demanded information 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 repeatedly categorically denied any wrongdoing.

Details of the Letter

“It has been widely reported that your relationship with Mr Epstein commenced in 1999 and that you remained close through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for trafficking underage girls for prostitution,” the letter said.

It added: “It has also been alleged that you journeyed with Epstein to his New York residence, the Queen’s estate at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been charged of abusing young girls. 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 bolsters our suspicion that you may have important details about the wrongdoings committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”

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

Earlier Statements and Assistance

The letter comes a week after another Democrat on the committee told: “Andrew should be called to testify before the panel. The people should be able to know who was abusing women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”

However, the lawmaker does not hold the ability to subpoena the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot oblige statements from a non-US citizen.

In 2020, US agencies said that Mountbatten Windsor failed to respond to US appeals for an meeting. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that lawyers and the FBI had contacted Andrew’s lawyers to inquire on his earlier promise that he was “willing to help any suitable 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 “offered no cooperation”.

Calls for Transparency

The representative said in a statement that “wealthy and well-connected men have avoided the law for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the chance to be honest and deliver accountability for the survivors. The committee will not stop pushing for answerability and transparency for victims of Epstein and his network of partners.”

Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing evidence to the committee from Epstein’s accusers, as well as media coverage of released files, “it is crucial that Andrew works together with the ongoing inquiry. If he is innocent, then he can clear his name.”

The lawmaker stated further: “And if not, our examination will reveal that, and the survivors will receive much-delayed accountability. The monarchy’s actions taking away Andrew of his styles show there is further to this situation.”

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