Andrew faces pressure as new emails to Epstein are published and Democrats call on him to testify
Democrats investigating Jeffrey Epstein have stepped up their calls for Britain’s former prince, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, to answer their questions about his ties to the disgraced financier, days after King Charles stripped his younger brother of his title.
Calls for Andrew to give evidence came as new emails emerged showing he suggested a “catch-up” with Epstein just months after the notorious pedophile was released from prison.
Several Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee told the BBC that Andrew should voluntarily testify before Congress. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., said Saturday that if the former prince “wants to do right by the victims, he will come forward,” noting that his name had been mentioned “repeatedly” in survivors’ stories.
Another committee member, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., urged Andrew to “come testify and tell us what you know” in an interview Friday, while Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., said Andrew’s testimony could be “helpful in getting justice” for survivors.
Committee member Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., echoed those calls in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, saying Andrew “should be called to testify.” No Republican on the committee publicly called Andrew to testify, and no formal subpoenas were issued.
New emails between Andrew and Epstein, released Friday in unsealed court documents, increased the scrutiny.
In April 2010, less than a year after Epstein was released from prison for soliciting minors, Andrew wrote that it would be “nice to catch up in person.” Epstein had suggested that Andrew meet American banker Jes Staley in London, but Andrew responded that he would be abroad and might “drop in” to New York later in the year.
“I will see if I can win a few days before summer,” he wrote.
Andrew and Epstein were photographed together in New York’s Central Park in December 2010, an encounter Andrew previously said ended their friendship.
That account was challenged last month when the Mail on Sunday and Sun on Sunday newspapers published another email allegedly sent by Andrew to Epstein in 2011, not verified by NBC News.
“We are in this together,” the newspapers reported in the email. “Play again soon.”
Andrew, who announced just two weeks ago that he would relinquish the use of his title as Duke of York, was formally stripped of it and his status as prince on Thursday, and effectively evicted from the 30-room mansion where he has lived for more than 20 years.
Pressure has mounted following the release of Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, which details her allegations that Andrew had sex with her on multiple occasions.
Andrew reached a legal settlement with Giuffre for an undisclosed amount in February 2022 after she filed a civil lawsuit against him in a New York court, accusing him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. He has repeatedly denied meeting her and previously denied that a photo of the two of them was real.
Prince William will travel to Brazil next week for an awards ceremony for his multimillion-dollar environmental prize, hoping to distract attention from his uncle Andrew and one of the deadliest royal scandals in recent history.
The British heir will visit some of Rio de Janeiro’s most famous landmarks in what will be his first trip to Latin America.
