Under a 2009 non-disclosure agreement, Virginia Giuffre has received $ 500,000 in compensation from Jeffrey Epstein for dropping allegations of abuse. In the settlement, lawsuits against accomplices of Epstein are excluded. Does that also apply to the accused Prince Andrew?
Virginia Giuffre at a summer 2019 press conference.
cov./gds./pop. A 2009 comparison between late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s many abuse victims, is on Monday released been. Giuffre and Epstein agreed that Giuffre should drop all lawsuits against Epstein and his accomplices, but receive $ 500,000 from Epstein. By signing the settlement, Giuffre, then named Virginia Roberts, and Epstein, they settled their first lawsuit in Florida in 2009.
So far, the document on which the settlement was recorded had been kept secret. Now it has been published as part of a civil lawsuit brought by Giuffre against the British Prince Andrew. Giuffre accuses the Prince of forcing her to have sex at the age of 17 in the London apartment of former Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and of abusing her in two of Epstein’s apartments. Giuffre, now 38, is seeking indefinite damages from Prince Andrew in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Prince Andrew, 61, has denied Giuffre’s claims. His lawyers are petitioning the court to dismiss the lawsuit. They argue that the just published agreement between Giuffre and Epstein excludes the prince from liability. In fact, the comparison contains an extensive exclusion of new claims for damages. The document says that Giuffre releases all “potential defendants” from all American claims, including all claims for damages. Giuffre’s attorneys, however, say the terms of the Florida settlement are irrelevant to the lawsuit against the prince.
Now the American District Judge Lewis Kaplan will have to decide whether the 2009 clause also shields Prince Andrew from Guiffres’ claims for damages. A hearing on Andrew’s motion to dismiss the civil complaint is scheduled for Tuesday. If the judge Kaplan does not stop the process, the trial of Prince Andrew could start in autumn 2022, writes the British newspaper “The Times”.
word agains word
Prince Andrew’s lawyers question the jurisdiction of the New York court. The plaintiff Giuffre is not resident in the American state of Colorado as stated, they emphasize. Giuffre live in Australia. In addition, the alleged acts did not take place in New York. Giuffre’s allegations were based solely on her unconfirmed and unverifiable allegation. From the lawyers’ point of view, testimony stands against testimony.
It was astonishing that Andrew played next to no role in the Maxwell trial. Giuffre was not called as a witness by the prosecution, but the prosecution did not give reasons. Maxwell’s lawyer Laura Menninger claims the cause is doubts about the 38-year-old’s credibility.
Ghislaine Maxwell himself was silent during the trial and could therefore not be asked about Andrew. However, the British media are now speculating that they could still unpack in order to obtain a milder prison sentence.
Prince Andrew’s reputation badly damaged
The case has already damaged Prince Andrew’s reputation enormously. Observers see him as a loser, even if the court should agree with him. British media speculate what it would take for him to lose his title Duke of York.
“Unfortunately for Andrew, it is no longer so much about evidence and evidence or what, if anything, happened to Virginia Giuffre,” the British tabloid Daily Mail quoted an unnamed royal observer as saying. “It’s all about public perception.”
In fact, Andrew has to live with severe criticism. His former friendship with Epstein and Maxwell, who was found guilty of trafficking in human beings for abuse purposes last Wednesday, has long been known. Several times, Epstein and Maxwell attended events at Andrew’s invitation.
Andrew hid – only the Queen still stands by him
In the interview with the BBC in mid-November 2019, which was intended as a liberation, the Queen’s son talked about head and neck. He vehemently denied ever having become intimate with Giuffre. He has not appeared in public since then.
Will he be charged or exonerated from the Epstein-Giuffre settlement? Britain’s Prince Andrew.
According to the British tabloid, when Giuffre’s lawyers tried to serve the lawsuit in the fall of 2021, Andrew went into hiding so he would not have to accept the court documents. For this purpose he is said to have stayed longer in his mother’s Scottish residence, Balmoral Castle. The property also played a role in Maxwell’s trial, as she had spent time there with Epstein.
Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan prison cell in 2019 while awaiting sexual abuse trial. His accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell was held accountable: she was found guilty on five of six counts in late December. She allegedly colluded with Epstein between 1994 and 2004 and assisted him in his sexual abuse of underage girls. The judge in the abuse trial against Ghislaine Maxwell has given the prosecution and defense until next Monday (January 10th) time to come up with a plan for negotiating a sentence. The 60-year-old could be sentenced to several decades in prison.
The civil case against Prince Andrew threatens to overshadow the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne. The Queen is the only one in the Royal Family who stands by Andrew, according to British media. The middle son has always been her favorite.
with agency material