London — Democrats on the Home Oversight Committee despatched a letter on Thursday to the previous Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, requesting that the disgraced British royal seem earlier than Congress for questioning over his former ties to the late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The Committee is in search of to uncover the identities of Mr. Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers and to grasp the complete extent of his felony operations,” stated the letter, which was signed by the highest Democrat on the committee, Rep. Robert Garcia, and 14 others.
“Nicely-documented allegations towards you, alongside along with your long-standing friendship with Mr. Epstein, point out that you could be possess data of his actions related to our investigation. Within the curiosity of justice for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, we request that you just cooperate with the Committee’s investigation by sitting for a transcribed interview with the Committee,” the American lawmakers stated.
Neither Garcia nor the committee has the ability to subpoena Andrew, who was formally stripped of the title of prince on Thursday.
No Republicans on the Home committee signed the letter.
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The communication cited Andrew’s broadly reported friendship with Epstein, which continued after the American financier’s 2008 conviction for procuring minors for prostitution. It additionally talked about Andrew’s visits to Epstein’s residences in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in addition to Epstein’s journey to the late Queen Elizabeth II’s residence at Balmoral in Scotland.
“This shut relationship with Mr. Epstein, coupled with the lately revealed 2011 electronic mail alternate during which you wrote to him ‘we’re on this collectively,’ additional confirms our suspicion that you might have worthwhile details about the crimes dedicated by Mr. Epstein and his co-conspirators,” the letter stated.
It additionally cited a lot of allegations by the late Virginia Giuffre, together with that she was “lent out” to Andrew by Epstein on a lot of events.
“In response to a subpoena issued to the Epstein property, the Committee has recognized monetary data containing notations comparable to “therapeutic massage for Andrew” that elevate critical questions relating to the character of your relationship with Mr. Epstein and associated monetary transactions,” the letter stated.
The Home Democrats additionally talked about Giuffre’s memoir, which was printed posthumously this yr, during which she talked about her concern of Andrew retaliating if she publicized allegations towards him.
“This concern of retaliation has been a persistent impediment to lots of those that had been victimized of their struggle for justice. Along with Mr. Epstein’s crimes, we’re investigating any such efforts to silence, intimidate, or threaten victims, and are desirous about any avenues that will additional make clear these actions,” the letter stated.
Andrew was requested to reply to the letter by Nov. twentieth, “as a result of urgency and gravity of this matter.”
He was stripped of each his “Royal Highness” and “prince” titles on Thursday, and final month he gave up different royal titles, together with “Duke of York.”
He had already stepped down from public duties as a member of the royal household in 2019, after a disastrous interview with the BBC about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
After permitting his youthful brother to slowly and voluntarily surrender his royal honors for months, King Charles III introduced abruptly on October 30 — after extra revelations about Andrew’s previous ties to Epstein — that he could be disadvantaged of the titles and evicted from his long-time, 30-bedroom mansion on the Windsor property.
Buckingham Palace declined to touch upon the request from U.S. lawmakers for the previous prince to provide on-the-record remarks, and there was no fast reply from Andrew to a CBS Information request for touch upon the matter.
