Days after King Charles stripped his brother of his royal titles, Democrats investigating Jeffrey Epstein have stepped up their calls to answer questions about former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s ties to the disgraced financier.
The request to testify against Mr. Andrews came after new emails emerged showing that Mr. Andrews offered to “catch up” with Mr. Epstein just months after the notorious pedophile was released from prison.
Several Democrats on the House of Commons Oversight Committee told the BBC that Mr Andrew should voluntarily testify before Parliament. Rep. Suhas Subrahmanyam, D-Virginia, said Saturday that the former crown prince “will come forward if he wants justice for the victims,” noting that his name has been mentioned “many times” in testimony by survivors.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, also a member of the committee, urged Andrew in an interview Friday to “come and testify and tell us what you know,” while Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., said Andrew’s testimony could “help us get justice” for survivors.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a member of the committee, echoed this call in an interview with the Guardian, saying Andrew “should be called to testify.” Republican members of the committee have not publicly sought Mr. Andrew’s testimony, and no formal subpoena has been issued.
New emails between Mr. Andrew and Mr. Epstein, released Friday in private court documents, have drawn even more scrutiny.
In April 2010, less than a year after Epstein was released from prison on charges of soliciting a minor, Andrew wrote: “It’s good to have a direct update.” Mr. Epstein suggested that Andrew meet with American banker Jess Staley in London, but Andrew replied that he was out of the country and might “stop by” in New York later this year.
“I’ll see if I can fit in a few days before summer,” he wrote.
Andrew and Epstein were photographed together in New York’s Central Park in December 2010, and Andrew has previously said that this encounter marked the end of their friendship.
That account was disputed last month when the Mail on Sunday and the Sun on Sunday published another email that Mr. Andrews allegedly sent to Mr. Epstein in 2011, which NBC News has not verified.
“We are in this together,” the email said, the newspaper reported. “Please play more soon.”
Andrew announced just two weeks ago that he was relinquishing his title as Duke of York, but on Thursday he was formally stripped of that title and his status as a prince, effectively evicting him from the 30-room mansion he had lived in for more than 20 years.
Pressure increased after the death of the late Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre, following the publication of a memoir detailing claims that Andrew had multiple sexual encounters with her.
Andrew filed a civil lawsuit in a New York court accusing Giuffre of sexually assaulting her when she was 17 years old, and reached a legal settlement in February 2022 for an undisclosed amount. He has repeatedly denied ever meeting her and previously denied that a photo of the two of them was real.
Prince William is due to head to Brazil next week to attend a multi-million dollar environmental award ceremony, hoping to regain attention from his uncle Andrew and one of the most painful royal scandals in recent history.
The British heir will visit some of Rio de Janeiro’s most famous landmarks on his first trip to Latin America.
