The leading Democrat on the House oversight committee, California congressman Robert Garcia, asked King Charles III's younger brother to assist with the investigation in a letter that was released on Thursday.
A week after Mountbatten Windsor consented to give up his rented house in Windsor and was deprived of his royal title, the formal request to respond to inquiries was made.
Documents and flight logs that the committee subpoenaed from Epstein's estate and made public contain references to Mountbatten Windsor. Additionally, the late Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's attack victims, has accused him of sexual assault.
“The oversight committee will investigate allegations of abuse by Mountbatten Windsor, and will seek information on Epstein’s operations, network, and associates based on the men’s longstanding and well-documented friendship,”
the committee said in a press release.
It demanded information from Mountbatten Windsor on specifics of his relationship with Epstein, who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019. Andrew has always strongly denied any wrongdoing.
“It has been publicly reported that your friendship with Mr Epstein began in 1999 and that you remained close through and after his 2008 conviction for procuring minors for prostitution,”
the letter said.
It continued:
“It has also been reported that you traveled 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 accused of abusing minors. This close relationship with Mr Epstein, coupled with the recently revealed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further confirms our suspicion that you may have valuable information about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators.”
Thirteen other Egalitarians on the commission co-signed the letter, according to an announcement, and it asks for a response by November 20.
Still, Congress can not force a foreign public to testify, and Garcia doesn't have the authority to subpoena the former Napoleon.
According to US authorities, Mountbatten Windsor didn't reply to US requests for an interview in 2020. Prosecutors and the FBI had gotten in touch with Andrew's attorneys to follow up on his earlier promise that he was "willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency," according to Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York at the time.
Suhas Subramanyam, a Democrat from Virginia and another signatory, stated that "it is vital that Andrew cooperates with the ongoing investigation" following the committee hearing testimony from Epstein's victims and the public release of papers that had been leaked. He can clear his name if he is innocent.
Subramanyam added:
“And if not, our investigation will show that, and the victims will receive long overdue justice. The Royal Family’s actions stripping Andrew of his titles show there is more to this story.”
The letter was sent on the same day that Mountbatten Windsor's royal title of prince was formally revoked by the British king. The move was publicly declared a week ago by Charles III by the issuance of a "letters patent," which the royal office published in the Gazette, the official public record of the United Kingdom.
Which House committee is handling the Epstein probe?
The US House Committee handling the disquisition into Jeffrey Epstein is the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Chaired by James Comer, this commission has been laboriously subpoenaing documents from the Department of Justice, reviewing the civil government's disquisition of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and seeking evidence from applicable individualities.
The commission is probing implicit mismanagement of the civil disquisition, circumstances around Epstein's death, and the broader coitus trafficking network. It has also issued processes to colorful former government officers to gather information on Epstein’s conditioning and his connections. This commission is crucial in overseeing the congressional inquiry into the Epstein case.
The panel's approach reflects a broader trouble to insure responsibility among influential individualities connected to Epstein.