WASHINGTON — Rep. Ro Khanna publicly demanded Tuesday that disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — previously often known as Prince Andrew, Duke of York — testify earlier than the highly effective Home Oversight Committee about his relationship with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“Prince Andrew wants to come back and testify earlier than our Oversight Committee,” Khanna (D-Calif.) declared throughout a press convention with survivors outdoors the Capitol forward of a Home vote to compel the Justice Division to launch all supplies on the infamous case.
Democrats on the highly effective investigative panel invited Mountbatten-Windsor to voluntarily reply questions in a Nov. 6 letter that gave the disgraced royal two weeks to reply.
Virginia Giuffre claimed that Epstein and his confederate, Ghislaine Maxwell, trafficked her within the early 2000s to Andrew, with whom she had intercourse thrice on the age of 17. There have additionally been accusations that Andrew sicced his taxpayer-funded safety dig up grime on Giuffre after she went public in late 2014.
Final month, Mountbatten-Windsor’s older brother, King Charles III, started the formal strategy of stripping Andrew’s titles in response to the rising scandal over his ties to Epstein.
“There’s turning into a reckoning in Britain that should occur in the USA,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) stated Tuesday.
“We have to see those self same form of penalties right here.”
Giuffre’s youthful brother, Sky Roberts, joined different Epstein survivors and paid tribute to his sister, who took her personal life this previous April.
“Virginia’s story is one that ought to have been filled with promise and survival,” Roberts stated. “This isn’t simply the story of 1 woman; it’s a narrative in regards to the insidious nature of energy and abuse, a darkish chapter in a society.”
“Sissie, you didn’t make a small dent,” he stated by tears. “You made a monumental influence, a convincing assertion that echoed internationally. You construct an unbreakable wall, a barrier that may defend future generations and the horde of abuse.”
Khanna and Massie had teamed up to make use of a parliamentary device often known as a discharge petition to power a vote on the Epstein Information Transparency Act, bypassing GOP management and the committee course of.
The measure would compel the Justice Division to publicly reveal “all unclassified data, paperwork, communications, and investigative supplies” pertaining to Epstein.
Initially, President Trump and Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) expressed opposition to the measure however have since come round in help of it.
“I encourage you, President Trump, please cease making this political. It’s not about you, President Trump,” Epstein survivor Jena-Lisa Jones stated in the course of the press convention.
“You’re our president — please begin performing prefer it. Present some class. Present some actual management. Present that you simply really care about individuals aside from your self. I voted for you, however your habits on this concern has been a nationwide embarrassment.”
Jones held up a photograph of her as a teen, and stated Epstein “stole quite a bit from me at 14.”
“Far too lengthy, survivors like me have been dismissed, silenced, are advised that our ache was exaggerated or fabricated,” fellow survivor Sharlene Rochard lamented. “Let me be clear. This isn’t a hoax.”
Annie Farmer, who alleges she was simply 16 and her sister, Marie, was 22 when Epstein abused them, recounted the decades-long pursuit of justice towards the late intercourse predator.
“This yr, after campaigning on a pledge to lastly launch the recordsdata beneath Trump’s second presidency, the DOJ introduced they had been closing the investigation after which transferred Ghislaine Maxwell into a jail camp the place it’s properly documented that she is receiving particular remedy,” she stated.
“This isn’t a difficulty of some corrupt Democrats or just a few corrupt Republicans. That is the case of institutional betrayal.”
