Democrats investigating Jeffrey Epstein have intensified their requires Britain’s former prince, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, to reply their questions on his hyperlinks to the disgraced financier, days after King Charles stripped his youthful brother of his title.
The requires Andrew to testify got here as new emails emerged exhibiting he instructed a “catch-up” with Epstein simply months after the infamous pedophile was launched from jail.
A number of Democratic members of the Home Oversight Committee informed the BBC that Andrew ought to voluntarily testify earlier than Congress. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., stated Saturday that if the previous prince “desires to do proper by the victims, he’ll come ahead,” noting that his identify had been talked about “many occasions” in survivors’ accounts.
Fellow committee member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ailing., urged Andrew to “come and testify and inform us what you realize” throughout a Friday interview, whereas Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., stated Andrew’s testimony may be “useful in getting justice” for survivors.
Committee member Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., echoed the calls in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, saying Andrew “needs to be known as to testify.” No Republicans on the committee have publicly known as for Andrew to testify, and no formal subpoena has been issued.
New emails between Andrew and Epstein launched on Friday in unsealed court docket paperwork have added to the scrutiny.
In April 2010, lower than a yr after Epstein’s launch from jail for soliciting minors, Andrew wrote that it could be “good to catch up in particular person.” Epstein had proposed that Andrew meet American banker Jes Staley in London, however Andrew replied that he could be in a foreign country and would possibly “drop by” New York later within the yr.
“I’ll look and see if I could make a few days earlier than the summer time,” he wrote.
Andrew and Epstein had been pictured collectively in New York’s Central Park in December 2010, a gathering Andrew had beforehand stated was to finish their friendship.
That account was challenged final month when the Mail on Sunday and the Solar on Sunday newspapers revealed one other e mail reported to have been despatched by Andrew to Epstein in 2011, not verified by NBC Information.
“We’re on this collectively,” the newspapers reported that the e-mail learn. “Play some extra quickly.”
Andrew, who simply two weeks in the past introduced he would relinquish the usage of his Duke of York title, was on Thursday formally stripped of it in addition to his standing as a prince, and successfully evicted from the 30-room mansion the place he has lived for greater than 20 years.
Strain mounted following the posthumous publication of late Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, which particulars her allegations that Andrew had intercourse along with her on a number of events.
Andrew reached a authorized settlement with Giuffre for an undisclosed quantity in February 2022 after she filed a civil case in opposition to him in a New York court docket accusing him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17 years outdated. He has repeatedly denied having met her and beforehand denied {that a} {photograph} of the 2 of them is actual.
Prince William will head to Brazil subsequent week for an awards ceremony for his multi-million-dollar environmental prize, hoping to refocus consideration away from his uncle Andrew and some of the bruising royal scandals in latest historical past.
The British inheritor will go to a few of Rio de Janeiro’s most well-known landmarks on what shall be his first Latin American journey.
