Washington (AFP) – Britain’s disgraced former prince Andrew failed to respond to a request from US lawmakers to be questioned about his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, members of a US Congressional committee have announced. Sixteen Democratic lawmakers signed a letter asking Andrew to participate in a “transcribed interview” with the House of Representatives oversight committee investigating Epstein, who took his own life in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
The letter asked Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor after King Charles III formally stripped his younger brother of his titles over his ties to Epstein, to respond by November 20. The US Congress cannot compel testimony from foreigners, so it was always unlikely that Andrew would consent to do so. Democrats are in the minority in the House.
“Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s silence in the face of the Oversight Democrats’ demand for testimony speaks volumes,” two members of that committee, Robert Garcia and Suhas Subramanyan, said in a statement Friday. “The documents we’ve reviewed, along with public records and Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s testimony, raise serious questions he must answer, yet he continues to hide.”
Emails recently released by the committee as well as a posthumous memoir written by Giuffre, who accused Andrew of sexual assault, reignited anger in the UK over Andrew’s ties to Epstein. Andrew has always denied that he sexually abused Giuffre, who alleged that she was trafficked to have sex with him on three occasions, twice when she was 17. After she launched a lawsuit against him, he paid her a multi-million-pound settlement in 2022 without making any admission of guilt.
Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, died by suicide at her home in Australia in April. Garcia and Subramanyan said the committee’s work to understand the extent of Epstein’s network would “move forward with or without” testimony from the 65-year-old Andrew. “We will hold anyone who was involved in these crimes accountable, no matter their wealth, status, or political party. We will get justice for the survivors,” they said.
© 2024 AFP
