The settlement between Jeffery Epstein and his accuser, Virginia Robert Giuffre has been unsealed and Prince Andrew hopes to use it to his advantage. The newly released document comes just days after Jeffery Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on five counts of sex abuse.
According to the Daily Mail, it has also been reported that Prince Andrew hopes the reveal of this settlement from 2009 will lead to the dismissal of the sex abuse lawsuit that Virginia Robert Giuffre had filed against him.
On Tuesday, a federal judge will rule whether or not the settlement provides sufficient grounds for dismissal of the New York lawsuit against Prince Andrew. Giuffre originally sued the Prince for infliction of emotional distress and battery, claiming that when she was 17 years old Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew three times in 2001.
According to the Daily Mail, Andrew obviously denies Giuffre’s claims and believes she is just “after another payday at his expense.”
Prince Andrew Hopes That a Newly Unsealed Settlement Will Dismiss Virginia Robert Giuffre’s Lawsuit Against Him
As it was revealed on Monday, January 3, Giuffre accepted a settlement of $500,000 from Epstein. In addition to the money, by signing the 2009 settlement, Giuffre also agreed that the $500,000 would include “other potential defendants.”
The settlement specifically reads, according to the Daily Mail, “Hereby release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge the said Second Parties and any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant (“Other Potential Defendants”) from all, and all manner of, action and actions of Virginia Roberts.’
Although Prince Andrew is not specifically named in the settlement, his legal team believes he falls under the “other potential defendants” category. New York Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan will decide whether or not Prince Andrew does fall under that category.
According to CBS News, Ghislaine’s conviction could have an effect on how Prince Andrew’s involvement will be handled in the go forward. Former tabloid editor Kelvin McKenzie told CBS News that if Judge Kaplan does not dismiss the lawsuit, “It will be beyond shocking,” McKenzie said. “He will be slaughtered.”
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And should the lawsuit move forward, Prince Andrew could be expected to give sworn testimony regarding the accusations against him for the first time. It is also possible that Giuffre’s legal team could ask Andrew’s niece-in-law Meghan Markle to be a witness.
As CBS News reports, Markle—although not a member of the royal family during the time in question—would be asked if she has “any factual information of being part of — even briefly — the royal family, and have any information on Prince Andrew; how he acted, what he was like, where he was at certain times, so on and so forth.”
In the past, Andrew has admitted to being close with Epstein, even staying at his New York home after he was a convicted sex offender. “You were staying at the house of a convicted sex offender,” the BBC reporter said to Andrew during the interview, to which the prince responded saying, “It was a convenient place to stay.”
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