British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the disgraced British royal formerly known as Prince Andrew, to testify before the U.S. Congress about his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Firstly, I have always approached this question with the victims of Epstein in mind. Epstein’s victims have to be the first priority. As for whether there should be an apology, that’s a matter for Andrew,” Starmer told members of the press on Saturday during an official visit to Tokyo.
“But yes, in terms of testifying, I have always said anybody who has got information should be prepared to share that information in whatever form they are asked to do that. You can’t be victim-centered if you’re not prepared to do that.”
The statement comes after the Justice Department on Friday released more than 3 million pages of documents related to its investigation into Epstein as part of its mandate to fulfill the requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Among the documents are photographs that show a barefoot Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over and touching the stomach and waist of an unidentified female figure whose face has been redacted.
Also among the newly released documents, The Guardian identified email exchanges between him and Epstein dated 2010. In them, Epstein tells Mountbatten-Windsor, “I have a friend who I think you might enjoy having dinner with” and refers to a 26-year-old Russian woman. Andrew replied that he would be “delighted to see her” and told Epstein to give her his contact information.
Mountbatten-Windsor has been unable to distance himself from the scandal arising from his friendship with Epstein, the American financier who ran a sex-trafficking ring.
Amid ongoing revelations about his history with Epstein, Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles last year by his older brother, King Charles III. Andrew was also evicted from his home at Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion located on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, sued Mountbatten-Windsor in 2021, claiming she was forced to have sex with him. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount in 2022 with no admission of wrongdoing. Giuffre died by suicide last April. Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied the allegations against him. In a now-famous BBC Newsnight interview, he claimed he was at a PizzaExpress in Woking, U.K., with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, at the time of the alleged assault.
MS NOW is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from NBC, The Associated Press, CNBC and CBS. Journalists from each newsroom worked together to examine the documents and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.