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A US congressional body investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly Britain’s Prince Andrew, demanding that he participate in a deposition as part of its probe into Epstein’s illegal activities.

In a letter published on Thursday, a US representative, the senior Democrat on the House oversight committee, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother cooperate with its inquiry.

The official demand to answer questions arrives a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his royal title and agreed to give up his rented residence in Windsor.

Documents and Allegations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name is listed in records and flight logs obtained from Epstein’s estate and disclosed by the committee. He has also been charged by one of Epstein’s survivors, the late Virginia Giuffre, of misconduct.

“The committee will examine accusations of wrongdoing by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request details on Epstein’s operations, network, and associates based on the men’s longstanding and well-documented friendship,” the committee said in a announcement.

It demanded details from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his relationship with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019. Andrew has repeatedly vehemently rejected any misconduct.

Substance of the Letter

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

It added: “It has also been reported 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 accused of assaulting young girls. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, coupled with the recently revealed 2011 electronic correspondence in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further supports our suspicion that you may have important details about the offenses committed by Mr Epstein and his partners in crime.”

A announcement regarding the letter said it was supported by 13 other Democrats on the committee and asks a response by 20 November.

Past Comments and Cooperation

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

However, the lawmaker does not have the authority to subpoena the duke and Congress itself cannot compel statements from a foreign national.

In 2020, US agencies said that Mountbatten Windsor neglected to respond to US appeals for an meeting. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that authorities and the FBI had reached out to Andrew’s lawyers to check on his previous pledge that he was “willing to help any suitable law enforcement agency”.

“It’s fair for people to know whether Prince Andrew has honored with that pledge,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “given zero cooperation”.

Appeals for Transparency

The congressman said in a comment that “affluent and powerful men have avoided accountability for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the chance to come clean and provide justice for the victims. The committee will not halt fighting for responsibility and clarity for survivors of Epstein and his network of co-conspirators.”

Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing accounts to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as public reporting of released files, “it is vital that Andrew cooperates with the ongoing inquiry. If he is innocent, then he can prove his innocence.”

The lawmaker continued: “And if not, our probe will demonstrate that, and the affected individuals will receive much-delayed justice. The royal household’s actions taking away Andrew of his honors suggest there is further to this story.”

The letter came on the same day the British king publicly stripped Mountbatten Windsor of his princely title. Charles III publicly made the adjustment – which had been revealed a week ago – by issuing a “letters patent” which the crown office made public in the Gazette, the UK’s public registry.