Prince Andrew is being sued by Virginia Giuffre for sexual abuse. The now 36 year old woman claims that Andrew abused her when she was a teenager while knowing that she was being trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew’s lawyers have done everything they could think of to try to get the sexual abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew thrown out of court. They argued that Giuffre wasn’t explicit enough in her claims, to which Judge Lewis Kaplan responded, “Ms. Giuffre’s complaint is neither ‘unintelligible’ nor ‘vague’ nor ‘ambiguous.’ It alleges discrete incidents of sexual abuse in particular circumstances at three identifiable locations. It identifies to whom it attributes that sexual abuse.”
Andrew’s lawyers also claimed that the Child Victim’s Act was not constitutional. This temporary law allowed victims of sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits no matter how long it had been since the sexual abuse occurred. Kaplan called this argument “without merit.”
In 2009, there was a sealed settlement between Epstein and Giuffre. Andrew’s lawyers claimed this document prevented her from pursing legal action against Andrew. The judge ordered the document to be unsealed. The document did prevent legal action against Epstein and any “potential defendants” but Andrew was not listed as a “potential defendant.” In addition, the document was specifically regarding sex trafficking, and Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, explained, “There is no allegation that Prince Andrew was the person transporting. There is no allegation that Prince Andrew fell into the category of people who were doing the trafficking. He was somebody to whom the girls were trafficked.”
Regarding the 2009 document, Kaplan wrote, “The Court cannot rewrite the 2009 agreement to give the defendant rights where the agreement does not clearly manifest an intent to create them.”
Although Andrew’s lawyers tried to get the case thrown out of court, they tried and failed. The case will move forward.
The next important date is January 14, 2022. That’s when Giuffre’s lawyers will respond to Andrew’s lawyers’ discovery requests.
Do you think Prince Andrew will ultimately be found guilty?