Friday was the count deadline for Prince Andrew to file his legal response to Virginia Giuffre’s civil lawsuit. She’s suing Andrew for sexual abuse, because this is basically her only course of action at this point. While various criminal investigations are still ongoing, Virginia has been trying to get justice for herself and other victims of human trafficking for the better part of two decades. Virginia and her lawyers have used to civil courts to track down evidence of what happened to her, and to get any admissions she can from the people responsible for Jeffrey Epstein’s human trafficking ring. Virginia sued Ghislaine Maxwell, took a settlement from Maxwell and said “no thanks” to an NDA. My guess is that Virginia would settle for something similar from Andrew: a cash settlement, an admission of some sort, and in exchange, she’ll continue to refuse to sign an NDA. In any case, for now Andrew is “fighting” the lawsuit. His legal response was basically to accuse Virginia of trying to get money from him.
Prince Andrew has fired back at a woman’s ‘frivolous’ sex-assault lawsuit claiming she’s just out for a ‘payday’ in a shock motion he filed to dismiss the claims on Friday, which also accused her of helping Ghislaine Maxwell in her sex trafficking ring with Jeffrey Epstein. Virginia Giuffre, 38, is being slammed by the prince for her supposed false accusations that the Duke of York sexually abused her three times back in 2001 when she was just 17 years old – more than two decades ago.
In court documents filed in US District Court in Manhattan today – which was the court-imposed deadline for the prince to respond to Giuffre’s suit – Andrew, 61, urged a US judge to dismiss her lawsuit, calling the claims ‘baseless’ in an effort to ‘achieve another payday’. Virginia alleges that she was forced into sex with Andrew at Maxwell’s London townhouse, sex pest Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan and one of Epstein’s private villas in the Virgin Islands.
Andrew said in response: ‘Virginia Giuffre may well be a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein…and nothing can excuse, nor fully capture, the abhorrence and gravity of Epstein’s monstrous behavior against Giuffre, if so. However, and without diminishing the harm suffered as a results of Epstein’s alleged misconduct, Prince Andrew never sexually abused or assaulted Giuffre. He unequivocally denies Giuffre’s false allegations against him.’
The court documents went on to point out that ‘for over a decade, Giuffre has profited from her allegations against Epstein and others by selling stories and photographs to the press and entering into secret agreements to resolve her claims against her alleged abusers, including Epstein and his ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell’.
Although it is unclear how much money she received through a settlement with the Epstein Victims Compensation Fund (EVFF), the compensation was reportedly worth more than $121million.
‘Epstein’s abuse of Giuffre does not justify her public campaign against Prince Andrew,’ the motion read, adding that her ‘pattern of filing a series of lawsuits against numerous high-profile individuals should no longer be tolerated, as it continues to irreparably harm many innocent people. Most people could only dream of obtaining the sums of money that Giuffre has secured for herself over the years,’ Andrew claimed, noting that the money could serve as a ‘compelling motive for Giuffre to continue filing frivolous lawsuits against individuals such as Prince Andrew’.
[From The Daily Mail]
Andrew’s defense is basically that everyone should ignore everything we already know about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and the lives they destroyed by trafficking in girls and very young women. Ignore the buffet of evidence already in the public sphere, not to mention the evidence which is still under seal by various jurisdictions and law enforcement offices. Andrew says: ignore all of that and believe ME when I say that Virginia is just saying this to get money from decent, hard-working human traffickers. And not just that, he’s saying that Virginia has already gotten “enough” money from Epstein’s estate and Maxwell, so why is she bothering him? Personally, I think it speaks volumes that Virginia has already gotten millions from her settlements and she’s still pursuing it. She still wants justice in any form she can get. Arguing that the teenager you raped is now a wealthy woman because she got settlements from the people who trafficked her… isn’t actually a sound legal argument.
Also: I edited out one of Andrew’s other legal arguments, which cited a NYDN article which smeared Virginia, a victim of human trafficking and rape, as culpable in the recruitment of other victims. Andrew is a complete ghoul.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, BBC screencaps.
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