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A American legislative body looking into sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has sent a letter to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly Britain’s Prince Andrew, requesting that he participate in questioning as part of its inquiry into Epstein’s wrongdoings.

In a communication released on Thursday, a lawmaker, the leading Democrat on the House oversight panel, asked that King Charles III’s younger brother cooperate with its inquiry.

The official demand to answer questions follows a week after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his HRH style and opted to surrender his property in Windsor.

Records and Accusations

Mountbatten Windsor’s name features in papers and aviation records secured from Epstein’s estate and disclosed by the committee. He has also been charged by one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, of misconduct.

“The committee will investigate accusations of misconduct by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request data on Epstein’s network, circle, and accomplices based on the men’s longstanding and thoroughly recorded friendship,” the committee said in a press release.

It requested information from Mountbatten Windsor on details of his association with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York detention facility in 2019. Andrew has always vehemently rejected any impropriety.

Content of the Communication

“It has been publicly reported that your friendship with Mr Epstein commenced in 1999 and that you stayed connected through and after his 2008 guilty verdict for trafficking underage girls for sex work,” the letter said.

It added: “It has also been claimed that you went with Epstein to his New York residence, the Queen’s residence at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s secluded island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been charged of assaulting young girls. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, along with the recently revealed 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 offenses committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators.”

A notification regarding the letter said it was co-signed by 13 other Democrats on the committee and demands a answer by 20 November.

Past Comments and Collaboration

The letter arrives a week after another Democrat on the committee stated: “Andrew should be asked to appear before the oversight committee. The citizens deserves to know who was assaulting women and underage individuals alongside Epstein.”

However, the representative does not hold the power to legally require the duke and Congress itself cannot oblige evidence from a non-US citizen.

In 2020, US authorities said that Mountbatten Windsor failed to cooperate to US requests 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 check on his earlier promise that he was “prepared to help any relevant law enforcement agency”.

“It’s just for people to know whether Prince Andrew has fulfilled with that assurance,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “provided no cooperation”.

Calls for Accountability

The congressman said in a comment that “affluent and well-connected men have avoided the law for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the option to come clean and deliver accountability for the affected individuals. The committee will not halt pushing for answerability and transparency for those affected of Epstein and his network of accomplices.”

Another signatory, a Virginia Democrat, said that after receiving accounts to the committee from Epstein’s accusers, as well as public reporting of leaked documents, “it is vital that Andrew works together with the ongoing probe. If he is blameless, then he can prove his innocence.”

The lawmaker stated further: “And if not, our investigation will demonstrate that, and the victims will receive much-delayed redress. The monarchy’s actions stripping Andrew of his styles suggest there is further to this story.”

The letter came on the same day the British king publicly removed Mountbatten Windsor of his HRH style. Charles III formally made the change – which had been revealed a week ago – by issuing a “royal decree” which the monarch’s office released in the Gazette, the UK’s government journal.