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A American legislative panel probing sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein has reached out to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly Britain’s Prince Andrew, asking that he submit to an interview as part of its probe into Epstein’s criminal operations.

In a communication made public 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 respond to queries arrives a week after Mountbatten Windsor was relieved of his royal title and opted to surrender his rented residence in Windsor.

Records and Allegations

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

“The oversight committee will probe claims of wrongdoing by Mountbatten Windsor, and will request details on Epstein’s operations, circle, and accomplices based on the men’s enduring and extensively reported friendship,” the committee said in a press release.

It requested information from Mountbatten Windsor on particulars of his association with Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail cell in 2019. Andrew has always strongly denied any impropriety.

Content of the Communication

“It has been widely reported that your relationship 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 property, the Queen’s estate at Balmoral, and to Mr Epstein’s personal island in the US Virgin Islands, where you have been alleged of assaulting minors. This strong bond with Mr Epstein, combined with the newly disclosed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further bolsters our belief that you may have important details about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators.”

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

Past Statements and Collaboration

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

However, the representative does not hold the authority to subpoena the former prince and Congress itself cannot oblige testimony from a overseas individual.

In 2020, US officials said that Mountbatten Windsor failed to respond to US appeals for an interview. The then US attorney for the southern district of New York said that prosecutors and the FBI had approached Andrew’s lawyers to inquire on his previous pledge that he was “ready to help any suitable law enforcement agency”.

“It’s fair for people to know whether Prince Andrew has followed through with that assurance,” the attorney said, adding that to date he had “offered zero cooperation”.

Appeals for Accountability

The congressman said in a statement that “affluent and powerful men have evaded justice for far too long. Now, one-time Prince Andrew has the option to come clean and deliver redress for the survivors. Oversight Democrats will not stop advocating for responsibility and clarity for those affected of Epstein and his network of partners.”

Another endorser, a Virginia Democrat, said that after hearing evidence to the committee from Epstein’s survivors, as well as media coverage of disclosed papers, “it is vital that Andrew cooperates with the active probe. If he is innocent, then he can vindicate himself.”

The lawmaker stated further: “And if not, our probe will show that, and the survivors will receive belated justice. The royal household’s actions taking away Andrew of his styles show there is additional to this story.”

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