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A Democratic representative has publicly called for the former prince Andrew Windsor to appear before the House of Representatives committee that is carrying out an inquiry into the government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Cross-Party Demands for Evidence

The statement from Ro Khanna, a California Democratic representative who is a member of the investigative House oversight committee, comes after a UK trade minister, Chris Bryant, suggested that since the former prince has been stripped of his royal titles, he should respond to requests for details about his connections to Epstein, an accused sex trafficker who died by suicide while in government custody six years ago.

“Just as with any regular citizen, if there were requests from another jurisdiction of this kind, I would expect any decently minded person to comply with that request,” the minister said.

Khanna commented: “Andrew should be called to testify before the investigative committee. The public deserves to know who was exploiting women and minors alongside Epstein.”

Partisan Landscape and Probe Progress

GOP members control the majority in the House of Representatives, but amid public outcry over Donald Trump’s handling of the Epstein matter approved an inquiry by the House committee into how the authorities managed his prosecutions. Public interest surged in July, after the Department of Justice announced that a widely speculated list of Epstein’s associates was non-existent, and it would provide no additional information on the case.

The House investigation has so far led to the publication of thousands of documents – including an explicit sketch reportedly drawn by Donald Trump for Epstein’s 50th birthday – as well as depositions from former top government officials.

Legislative Efforts and Challenges

As a minority party member, the representative does not have the power to subpoena the former prince’s appearance. Spokespeople for the committee’s Republican chair, James Comer, did not respond to questions about whether he believes the ex-royal should be questioned.

Khanna and Republican Congressman Massie have proposed legislation to force the release of Epstein-related documents, but Mike Johnson, a top ally of the president, has blocked a vote on it. The two congressmen have distributed a petition that will force a vote on the bill, if a majority of representatives sign it.

“This is what my campaign with Representative Massie has been about: transparency and accountability for the victims who have been courageously speaking out,” the lawmaker said.

The petition has been endorsed by all 213 House Democrats, as well as four GOP members. The final required signature is anticipated to come from Representative-elect Grijalva, who was elected in Arizona last month, and awaits swearing in by Johnson. However, the speaker has declined to act until the House reconvenes, and has stated he won’t instruct lawmakers to return to Washington until the Senate passes a measure to resolve the federal shutdown.