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A US congressional committee investigating sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly Britain’s Prince Andrew, requesting that he undergo a deposition as part of its probe into Epstein’s wrongdoings.

In a communication made public on Thursday, a California congressman, the leading Democrat on the House oversight committee, urged that King Charles III’s sibling cooperate with its investigation.

The official demand to provide testimony follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was relieved of his HRH style and agreed to give up his leased home in Windsor.

Records and Allegations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name features in records and travel logs obtained from Epstein’s estate and publicly released by the committee. He has also been charged by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of misconduct.

“The oversight committee will examine claims of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will seek data on Epstein’s operations, circle, and connections based on the men’s long-term and extensively reported friendship,” the committee said in a announcement.

It demanded information from Mountbatten Windsor on particulars of his friendship with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York detention facility in 2019. Andrew has consistently vehemently rejected any impropriety.

Details of the Request

“It has been publicly reported that your relationship with Mr Epstein commenced in 1999 and that you continued associating through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for trafficking underage girls for commercial sex acts,” the letter said.

It continued: “It has also been reported that you journeyed 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 alleged of assaulting young girls. This strong bond with Mr Epstein, coupled with the freshly uncovered 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further confirms our concern that you may have valuable information about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators.”

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

Earlier Comments and Cooperation

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

However, the lawmaker does not hold the power to subpoena the former prince and Congress itself cannot compel testimony from a non-US citizen.

In 2020, US authorities said that Mountbatten Windsor did not cooperate to US appeals for an meeting. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that prosecutors and the FBI had reached out to Andrew’s legal team to inquire on his previous pledge that he was “ready 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 “provided no cooperation”.

Calls for Accountability

The congressman said in a announcement that “wealthy and well-connected men have evaded the law for far too long. Now, former Prince Andrew has the opportunity to come clean and secure accountability for the affected individuals. The committee will not cease pushing for answerability and openness for those affected of Epstein and his group of co-conspirators.”

Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after listening to testimony to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as public reporting of released files, “it is crucial that Andrew cooperates with the ongoing probe. If he is not guilty, then he can vindicate himself.”

The lawmaker added: “And if not, our investigation will reveal that, and the affected individuals will receive long overdue justice. The Royal Family’s actions taking away Andrew of his titles indicate there is further to this case.”

The letter was issued on the same day the British king formally revoked Mountbatten Windsor of his royal title. Charles III formally made the alteration – which had been declared a week ago – by issuing a “royal decree” which the royal office published in the Gazette, the UK’s public registry.