Deadline for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to respond to US Congress nears - and what this means
The deadline for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to respond to the United States Congress is today (20 November).
Earlier this month (6 November), a letter, which was signed by 16 members of Congress, was sent to the former disgraced Duke of York by the House Oversight Committee, requesting that he respond by this Thursday.
The committee requested that Andrew, 65, sit for a 'transcribed interview' about his connections with the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died by suicide at the age of 66 while awaiting his sex-trafficking trial.
Suhas Subramanyam, one of the Democrat members of the committee, has since claimed that Andrew, who was officially stripped of all his royal titles and honours earlier this month, has been 'hiding' from the US government's request to question him.
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Mr Subramanyam told The Guardian that the former duke 'has been hiding from us, and I think he will continue to try to hide from people doing meaningful investigations of this matter'.
He added: "It seems like every time we find more evidence, Prince Andrew seems to be in the documents,
"And so I think if he is hoping that the story will just go away by ignoring us and being silent, he will be sorely disappointed, as we continue to pursue this over the next year and beyond."
The oversight committee in the House of Representatives asked Andrew to sit for a deposition as part of its investigation into Epstein and how the government handled his case.
The committee's letter said it had identified 'financial records containing notations such as "massage for Andrew" that raise serious questions'.
They have called for him to say what he knew about the actions of the convicted sex trafficker.
Andrew strenuously denies any wrongdoing.
He previously agreed to stop using his titles but had expected to remain a prince and retain his dukedom. The publication of the posthumous memoir of the late Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, in which she accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager, has also put more heat on the former royal. He denies the accusation.
The LADbible Media Group has reached out to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's representative for comment on whether he has responded to the US Congress request.
The deadline day comes after US President Donald Trump told House Republicans to vote to release the files in the Epstein case, marking a major U-turn from his previous vow to fight the proposal.
"We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party," he claimed on Truth Social on Sunday (15 November).
On Tuesday (18 November), the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to pass a bill that would require the Justice Department to publicly disclose 'all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative material' related to Epstein and his partner and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell is currently behind bars serving a 20-year sex-trafficking sentence.
The nearly unanimous bill passed the House 427-1, with the only 'no' vote from Republican US Representative Clay Higgins.
Trump has now signed the bill to release all files relating to the Epstein case.
The bill requires the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in the federal prison, within 30 days.
That means by roughly December 19th at the latest, the documents should be in public hands, but they could drop at any point up until then.
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, News, Prince Andrew, Royal Family, UK News, US News, Donald Trump
Rhiannon Ingle