The US Congress has written to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor requesting an interview with him in connection with his “long-standing friendship” with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said it is investigating the late financier’s “sex trafficking operations”.

It told Andrew: “The committee is seeking to uncover the identities of Mr Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers, and to understand the full extent of his criminal operations.

“Well-documented allegations against you, along with your long-standing friendship with Mr Epstein, indicate that you may possess knowledge of his activities relevant to our investigation.

“In the interest of justice for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, we request that you co-operate with the committee’s investigation by sitting for a transcribed interview with the committee.”

Read the letter in full

Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her after being introduced by Epstein. Andrew has always vehemently denied her accusations.

The letter to the former prince, is addressed to Royal Lodge, Windsor Great Park, the home he agreed last week to leave, when he was stripped of his royal titles.

It outlines his “close relationship” with Epstein and references a recently revealed 2011 email exchange in which Andrew told him “we are in this together”.

And it says the committee has identified “financial records containing notations such as ‘massage for Andrew’ that raise serious questions”.

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The committee said Andrew’s links to Epstein “further confirms our suspicion that you may have valuable information about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators”.

The letter, signed by 16 members of Congress, requested Andrew responds by 20 November.

It came as the King officially stripped his disgraced brother of both his HRH style and his prince title.

The move followed the publication Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoirs, and the US government’s release of documents from the paedophile’s estate.

Ms Giuffre alleged she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times – once at convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s home in London, once in Epstein’s address in Manhattan, and once on the disgraced financier’s private island, Little St James.

The incident at Maxwell’s home allegedly occurred when Ms Giuffre was 17 years old.

Epstein took his own life in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has been summoned by Congress to answer questions about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said it is investigating the late financier’s “sex trafficking operations”.

Andrew’s friendship with the paedophile has come under intense scrutiny in recent years and has led to him being stripped of his titles and made to leave his accommodation at Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate.

The memoir of Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, was posthumously published last month and in it she alleged she had sex with Andrew three times while she was a teenager.

Andrew paid a settlement to Ms Giuffre in 2022 and has always denied wrongdoing. He has previously resisted calls to be summoned to the US.

Here is the letter in full:

We write to seek your cooperation in the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s (Committee) investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operations. The Committee is seeking to uncover the identities of Mr. Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers and to understand the full extent of his criminal operations.

Well-documented allegations against you, along with your long-standing friendship with Mr. Epstein, indicate that you may possess knowledge of his activities relevant to our investigation. In the interest of justice for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, we request that you cooperate with the Committee’s investigation by sitting for a transcribed interview with the Committee.

It has been publicly reported that your friendship with Mr. Epstein began in 1999 and that you remained close through and after his 2008 conviction for procuring minors for prostitution.

It has also been reported that you traveled with Mr. Epstein to his New York residence, the Queen’s residence at Balmoral, and to Mr. Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where you have been accused of abusing minors.

This close relationship with Mr. Epstein, coupled with the recently revealed 2011 email exchange in which you wrote to him “we are in this together,” further confirms our suspicion that you may have valuable information about the crimes committed by Mr. Epstein and his co-conspirators.

As you are well aware, Virginia Roberts Giuffre made several allegations that you abused her when she was just 17 years old.

In her 2021 lawsuit, Ms. Giuffre alleged that she was forcibly “lent out” to you for sexual purposes on three separate occasions. In addition to these allegations, flight logs document several instances in which you were a passenger on Mr. Epstein’s plane between 1999 and 2006, while his criminal activities were ongoing.

In response to a subpoena issued to the Epstein estate, the Committee has identified financial records containing notations such as “massage for Andrew” that raise serious questions regarding the nature of your relationship with Mr. Epstein and related financial transactions.

In her posthumous memoir, Ms. Giuffre expressed a fear of retaliation if she made allegations against you, and writes that the settlement agreement you executed with her restricted her to one-year gag order designed to protect the Crown’s reputation.

Recent reporting confirms those fears, as law enforcement authorities in the United Kingdom have launched an investigation into allegations that you asked your personal protection officer to “dig up dirt” for a smear campaign against Ms. Giuffre in 2011.

This fear of retaliation has been a persistent obstacle to many of those who were victimized in their fight for justice. In addition to Mr. Epstein’s crimes, we are investigating any such efforts to silence, intimidate, or threaten victims, and are interested in any avenues that may further shed light on these activities.

Given these recent events and the appalling allegations that have come to light from Ms. Giuffre’s memoir and other reliable sources, the Committee requests that you make yourself available for a transcribed interview with the Committee and provide insight into the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators.

Due to the urgency and gravity of this matter, we ask that you provide a response to the Committee’s interest by November 20, 2025.

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X. If you have any questions about this request, please contact Committee Democratic staff at (202) 225-5051. Thank you for your prompt attention to this request.

The letter is signed by 16 members of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Police have revealed to Sky News they banned Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Aston Villa due to “significant levels of hooliganism” in the fan base jeopardising safety around the match – rather than threats to visiting Israelis.

This is the first time a West Midlands Police chief has publicly explained the intelligence behind the decision that was angrily opposed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

The revelation to us comes after MPs on the Home Affairs Committee this week asked for police to explain the decision.

Excluding Israeli fans was portrayed by the government as antisemitic by turning part of Birmingham into a no-go zone for Thursday night’s Europa League match.

“We are simply trying to make decisions based on community safety, driven by the intelligence that was available to us and our assessment of the risk that was coming from admitting travelling fans,” Chief Superintendent Tom Joyce told Sky News.

“I’m aware there’s a lot of commentary around the threat to the [Maccabi] fans being the reason for the decision. To be clear, that was not the primary driver. That was a consideration.

“We have intelligence and information that says that there is a section of Maccabi fans, not all Maccabi fans, but a section who engage in quite significant levels of hooliganism.

“What is probably quite unique in these circumstances is where as often hooligans will clash with other hooligans and it will be contained within the football fan base.

“We’ve had examples where a section of Maccabi fans were targeting people not involved in football matches, and certainly we had an incident in Amsterdam last year which has informed some of our decision-making.

“So it is exclusively a decision we made on the basis of the behaviour of a sub-section of Maccabi fans, but all the reaction that could occur obviously formed part of that as well.”

Maccabi’s match at Ajax last year saw attacks on Israeli fans condemned as antisemitic, leading to five people being convicted.

But there was also violence from supporters of the Israeli league champions, with anti-Arab chants.

Maccabi chief executive Jack Angelides on Wednesday said in a Sky News interview there were “blatant falsehoods” spread about the Amsterdam incident and complained about a lack of clarity over the ban from West Midlands Police.

“We are absolutely not saying that in Amsterdam that the only fans causing trouble were the Maccabi fans,” said Chief Superintendent Joyce.

“But what we were very clearly told is that they played a part in causing trouble particularly a day before the match.

“That absolutely resulted in following day there being attacks on Maccabi fans.

“So it wasn’t all one way, but… escalating violence as a consequence is what we were trying to prevent here in Birmingham.”

More than 700 police officers were being deployed for the match from around 10 forces across the country, with pro-Palestinian protests demanding a ban on Israeli teams from European football over the war in Gaza.

Ahead of the game anti-Israeli signs appeared on lampposts, including ones saying “Zionists not welcome” – a reference to those backing the existence of the Jewish state of Israel.

Asked about the phrase, Chief Superintendent Joyce said: “Our understanding is that they don’t quite contravene hate crime, but they’re acceptable as a matter of judgement.

“We’ve taken legal advice on whether it crosses the threshold to be a hate crime and our understanding is that it does not. And as with many of these things, there is often a question of degree at which something becomes lawful to unlawful and it’s a fine judgement.”