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A congressperson investigating the Jeffrey Epstein case accused the former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor<\/a>, of \u201chiding\u201d from his committee\u2019s request to sit for a deposition, as Congress moves closer to a key vote on forcing release of US government files related to the alleged sex trafficker.<\/p>\n Suhas Subramanyam is among the Democratic members of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives who earlier this month asked<\/a> Mountbatten-Windsor to sit for a deposition as part of its investigation into how the government handled the case against Epstein, who died while awaiting trial in 2019.<\/p>\n Mountbatten-Windsor, whom King Charles stripped<\/a> of his royal title amid concern over his friendship with Epstein and an allegation of sexual assault by Virginia Giuffre who said she was trafficked by the late financier, has not responded to the request, Subramanyam told the Guardian on Monday.<\/p>\n Mountbatten-Windsor \u201chas been hiding from us, and I think he will continue to try to hide from people doing meaningful investigations of this matter\u201d, Subramanyam added.<\/p>\n The request from the committee\u2019s Democratic minority came after UK trade minister Chris Bryant said<\/a> that, \u201cjust as with any ordinary member of the public\u201d, Mountbatten-Windsor should honor requests from American lawmakers to testify.<\/p>\n The congressperson spoke days after the oversight committee\u2019s Republican leader released more than 20,000 emails<\/a> obtained from Epstein\u2019s estate that detail his connections with Donald Trump and other powerful figures worldwide. Among the revelations in the documents was that Mountbatten-Windsor kept in touch with the late financier for longer<\/a> than was previously known.<\/p>\n \u201cIt 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,\u201d said Subramanyam, who has represented a northern Virginia district since the start of this year.<\/p>\n He acknowledged that his options for compelling Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s testimony were limited. Republicans hold the majority in the House, and none signed the letter asking Mountbatten-Windsor to testify. Even if the Democrats<\/a> retake control of the chamber after next year\u2019s midterm elections, Mountbatten-Windsor can\u2019t be subpoenaed because he is a foreign national, Subramanyam said.<\/p>\n Mountbatten-Windsor is not the focus of the oversight committee\u2019s investigation, which grew out of the furor that erupted among Trump\u2019s supporters in July, when the justice department announced that the Epstein case was closed. But Subramanyam said that Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s name keeps coming up, which means the pressure he is under to talk to the investigative panel is not going away.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if Andrew doesn\u2019t voluntarily come forward, there may be others who are close to him who may come forward as well and provide us information,\u201d he said, adding that those parties could be asked \u201cformally\u201d to testify to the oversight committee in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the documents have given us a lot of information over the past six months, and we\u2019re going to continue to press on with finding evidence and let the evidence do the talking. And so far, the evidence keeps talking about Andrew,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The House is expected to on Tuesday vote on legislation to compel release of US government files related to Epstein. Trump had opposed the legislation, but Democrats along with four dissident Republicans gathered enough signatures<\/a> on a petition that forced the vote, over the objections of speaker Mike Johnson, an ally of the president.<\/p>\n