Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been ordered to appear before members of Congress in Washington, D.C., for questioning about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a letter sent Thursday to the former Duke of York, Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight said they believe he may have key information about Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers.
“Rich and powerful men have evaded justice for far too long,” said Representative Robert Garcia, the committee’s ranking Democrat. “Now, former Prince Andrew has the opportunity to come clean and provide justice for the survivors.”
The letter requests Andrew respond by November 20.
“This doesn’t surprise me because I know there have been investigation going on in the states for some time which have been re-opened. This is a welcome development and its important that we get to the bottom of what’s actually happened because it shows there will be no fear or favor for Andrew in the future,” Andrew Lownie, author of Andrew biography Entitled, told Newsweek.
Why Was Andrew Mountbatten Windsor Stripped of His ‘Prince’ Title?
Virginia Giuffre sued Andrew at civil court in New York in 2021, accusing him of raping her when she was a 17-year-old sex trafficking victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell 20 years earlier in 2001.
In court filings, media interviews and her posthumous book, Nobody’s Girl, she described being flown to London, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands and made to have sex with Andrew, saying she feared death if she refused.
Andrew has always denied her allegations and settled for an undisclosed sum in 2022 while denying liability.
King Charles stripped Andrew of his titles partly after the publication of Nobody’s Girl but also after new emails between Andrew and Epstein were leaked in the British press.
One of them was sent in February 2011 just before publication of Giuffre’s first newspaper interview and appeared to show Andrew asked an on duty Metropolitan Police protection officer to dig up dirt on her.
“It would also seem she has a criminal record in the States,” Andrew wrote, quoted by The Mail on Sunday. “I have given her DoB [date of birth] and social security number for investigation with XXX, the on duty ppo [personal protection officer].”
Another undermined Andrew’s account given to the BBC in a November 2019 sit down interview, of when he cut off his friendship with Epstein. Andrew said he flew to New York in December 2010 to end the friendship in person but a newly released email shows he told Epstein “we’ll play some more soon” in February 2011.
What Happened to Prince Andrew?
Beyond formally stripping Andrew of his titles, King Charles also forced his brother out of Royal Lodge, Andrew’s 30-room mansion on which he had been paying only a nominal “peppercorn rent” since an initial payment in 2003 of £8.5 million.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” A Buckingham Palace statement on Thursday, October 30, said. “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein Relationship: What We Know
Andrew said he became friends with Epstein in 1999 and ceased contact in 2006, before flying out to New York to see him one last time in December 2010, as it was the “honorable” thing to do to break off the friendship in person.
He told Emily Maitlis on BBC Newsnight he was mainly friends with Maxwell, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, and sought to diminish his ties to Epstein.
He was asked whether he could have had sex with any Epstein victim. “No,” he said, “and without putting too fine a point on it, if you’re a man it is a positive act to have sex with somebody. You have to have to take some sort of positive action and so therefore if you try to forget it’s very difficult to try and forget a positive action and I do not remember anything.”
Andrew brought Epstein and Maxwell into the heart of the Monarchy to places most never get to see, including Balmoral, Queen Elizabeth II’s Scottish estate which represented an oasis of privacy for the constantly photographed royals.
Epstein also helped Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson escape mounting debts by lending her £15,000. Ferguson’s reputation has also been destroyed and she was axed by seven charities after it emerged she sent Epstein a thank you email in January 2011, a month after Andrew was supposed to have cut off contact.
“How can I thank you enough? You are a friend indeed and I will one day give it to you back. But I can not have the words to thank you now,” she wrote. “Sometimes the heart speaks better than the words. You have my heart. With lots of love, dear Jeffrey.”
Epstein had by that point already pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution, in 2008. The following month, Giuffre’s first media interview was published by The Mail on Sunday in Britain, printing for the first time a now famous image of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre’s waist.
It ran to 3,600 words and detailed her experiences of sexual abuse as a child, being homeless from the age of 11 and having sex with older men for food before falling into Epstein’s clutches.
The next day, Andrew wrote to Epstein: “I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it. Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!”
When Will Andrew Appear Before Congress?
There is no guarantee the committee will ever see Andrew testify face-to-face before them after past efforts by the D.O.J. to force Andrew’s testimony appeared to end in failure in 2020.
However, the very fact they are demanding his attendance places huge pressure on King Charles III, who has offered Andrew accommodation within the Sandringham Estate and some financial support.
“Andrew of course in the past has always refused to co-operate with anyone and the danger is this may incriminate him. All I can say is I hope he will [testify],” Lownie said. “I’m sure he will be under a lot of pressure to go and there will be more to come out about how Andrew was protected even up until a week ago.”
Neama Rahmani, now president of the firm West Coast Trial Lawyers in Los Angeles, however, doesn’t see Andrew ever testifying. He told Newsweek there is a “zero chance” that he testifies and the letter means “nothing” because it’s just a request.
“They can subpoena him but they would need Republican support. I think they would get it but it is not enforceable, the U.K. is not going to extradite him. He’ll never show up in the United States, that would be incredibly reckless and foolish,” Ramani said.
The palace will take the view that it is for Andrew, and not the Monarchy, to decide whether to attend the committee. The British public, however, may view things differently.
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