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A US congressional committee looking into pedophile 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 criminal operations.

In a communication published on Thursday, a California congressman, the senior Democrat on the House investigative committee, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother assist with its investigation.

The formal request to respond to queries arrives a week after Mountbatten Windsor was lost his princely title and consented to surrender his rented residence in Windsor.

Files and Claims

Mountbatten Windsor’s name is listed in documents and aviation records obtained from Epstein’s estate and publicly released by the committee. He has also been accused by one of Epstein’s survivors, the late Virginia Giuffre, of abuse.

“The committee will investigate accusations of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will demand data on Epstein’s operations, associates, and connections based on the men’s longstanding and well-documented friendship,” the committee said in a statement.

It requested details from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his friendship with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail cell in 2019. Andrew has consistently strongly denied any impropriety.

Content 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 guilty verdict for soliciting minors for sex work,” the letter said.

It continued: “It has also been reported that you went with Epstein to his New York property, the Queen’s home at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s personal island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been charged of assaulting young girls. This intimate friendship with Mr Epstein, combined with the freshly uncovered 2011 digital communication in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further supports our belief that you may have valuable information about the crimes 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 requests a response by 20 November.

Past Statements and Cooperation

The letter follows a week after another Democrat on the committee stated: “Andrew should be asked to testify before the oversight committee. The people has the right to know who was assaulting women and minors alongside Epstein.”

However, the representative does not hold the ability to compel the ex-royal and Congress itself cannot oblige evidence from a foreign national.

In 2020, US agencies said that Mountbatten Windsor did not reply to US appeals for an discussion. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that lawyers and the FBI had approached Andrew’s attorneys to follow up on his public commitment 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 pledge,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “given absolutely no cooperation”.

Calls for Accountability

The congressman said in a comment that “affluent and influential men have avoided accountability for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the opportunity to tell the truth and secure accountability for the survivors. The committee will not halt advocating for accountability and transparency for survivors of Epstein and his gang of co-conspirators.”

Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing evidence to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as news accounts of released files, “it is vital that Andrew works together with the active probe. If he is not guilty, then he can prove his innocence.”

The lawmaker stated further: “And if not, our examination will reveal that, and the victims will receive long overdue redress. The royal household’s actions stripping Andrew of his honors indicate there is additional to this case.”

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