Category Archives: Jeffrey Epstein

Lawyers question strength of Prince Andrew’s response to lawsuit

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Legal experts question whether document filed with US district court can help royal avoid ‘disastrous’ trial

British lawyers have cast doubt on the strength of Prince Andrew’s defence to Virginia’s Giuffre’s lawsuit and whether it can help him settle the case, thereby avoiding a “disastrous” court trial.

In papers filed with the US district court on Wednesday, Andrew denied sexually abusing Giuffre when she was a minor and also sought to bar his accuser’s claim on grounds including the time elapsed since the alleged offences – despite a New York statute having extended the window for child victim claims – and her “wrongful conduct”.

Andrew and convicted sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell have been photographed at numerous social events together.

Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to the charge of procuring a minor for prostitution.

Andrew had been on Epstein’s private plane and stayed at some of his homes.

The infamous photograph depicts Andrew, Giuffre and Maxwell at Maxwell’s home.

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Prince Andrew denies being co-conspirator of Epstein and insists on jury trial

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Duke denies Jeffrey Epstein ‘trafficked girls to him’ and demands trial in Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuit

Prince Andrew has denied that he was a co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, and insisted on a jury trial in Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuit against him, his lawyers said in court papers filed on Wednesday.

“Prince Andrew hereby demands a trial by jury on all causes of action asserted in the complaint,” his lawyers wrote. The Duke of York also denies that Epstein “trafficked girls to him”, the attorneys said in their legal filings.

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Witness willing to testify she saw Prince Andrew with a ‘young girl’ at London nightclub

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Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers seek her statement to counter the royal’s insistence he has never met their client or visited the club

A woman who may have seen Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre at a London nightclub 20 years ago is “willing” to provide testimony in Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against the royal, whom she accuses of sexual abuse, the witness’s lawyer said.

“I am proud to represent Shukri Walker, who has bravely stepped forward as a witness and encourages others who may have information to do so as well,” the lawyer Lisa Bloom said in an email.

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Ghislaine Maxwell to be sentenced in New York in late June

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Maxwell was convicted last month of recruiting and grooming teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse

Ghislaine Maxwell is due to be sentenced in late June after her conviction last month on charges including sex trafficking and conspiracy relating to the recruitment of teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.

US district judge Alison J Nathan announced the 28 June date on Friday even as she waits to resolve defence claims that a new trial should be ordered after a juror’s public admissions after the verdict about his childhood sexual abuse.

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Virginia Giuffre seeks testimony from Prince Andrew’s former assistant

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Attorneys say they have ‘reason to believe’ that Robert Olney has ‘relevant information’ about duke’s relationship with Epstein

Prince Andrew’s longtime accuser Virginia Giuffre is seeking testimony from his former equerry, according to court papers in her sexual abuse lawsuit against the royal.

Giuffre’s attorneys said on Friday that they had “reason to believe” that Robert Olney, the Duke of York’s past assistant, has “relevant information about Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein”.

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Virginia Giuffre praises ruling to allow Prince Andrew lawsuit to go to trial

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Giuffre says she will ‘continue to expose truth’ and ‘seek justice from those who hurt me and others’

Virginia Giuffre has praised a court ruling enabling her sexual assault civil lawsuit against the Duke of York to proceed to trial and said she will “continue to expose the truth”.

Giuffre wrote on Twitter she was “pleased” with the ruling, adding: “I’m glad I will have the chance to continue to expose the truth & I am deeply grateful to my extraordinary legal team.

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Virginia Giuffre ‘unlikely to accept purely financial settlement’ with Prince Andrew

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Giuffre wants vindication of herself and her claims, says her lawyer David Boies

The Duke of York’s accuser Virginia Giuffre would be unlikely to accept a “purely financial settlement” to end her sexual assault civil lawsuit against the royal, her lawyer has said.

David Boies was speaking after a US judge rejected Prince Andrew’s motion to have the civil case against him dismissed, paving the way for a possible civil trial in the autumn.

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Prince Andrew fails in bid to dismiss US sexual abuse lawsuit

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Civil claim against duke by longtime accuser Virginia Giuffre can move forward, federal judge rules in New York

  • This article contains descriptions of sexual abuse

A judge in New York has rejected Prince Andrew’s attempt to persuade a US court to throw out a sexual abuse lawsuit brought against him by longtime American accuser Virginia Giuffre.

Giuffre, now 38, says she was forced into sex at 17 with Andrew, the Duke of York, by associates of his, the late sex offender and financier, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell, the British media heiress who was convicted in New York last month of sex-trafficking girls for Epstein.

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Royals await anxiously the fallout from Prince Andrew’s disgrace

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The Queen’s favourite child, under siege in the press as he awaits a critical court ruling, is not the first obnoxious royal. But he has damaged ‘the Firm’ – and it will have to change

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, KG, GCVO, CD, ADC, turns 62 next month. It is long past the age at which a man is expected to stop being a cause of concern and embarrassment to his parents. And yet Andrew, who is said to be the Queen’s favourite child, has exposed his mother to the greatest threat to the royal family’s reputation in living memory.

As he awaits the decision of a New York judge, Lewis Kaplan, in the sex assault case brought by Virginia Giuffre, the prince finds himself in the deeply unedifying position of trying to evade court with a secret silencing deal struck by his late friend and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

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Ghislaine Maxwell: key juror has hired lawyer, trial judge says

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Maxwell’s lawyers say they will request retrial after unidentified juror told reporters he was sexually abused as a child

A juror who sat at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell last month and has now told reporters he was sexually abused as a child has retained a lawyer, the trial judge said on Thursday.

The unidentified juror’s public interviews led defense lawyers in the case to say they will request a new trial.

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Prince Andrew’s lawyers fight to dismiss Virginia Giuffre lawsuit in court

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Arguments via videoconference come day after unsealing of 2009 Epstein settlement as judge promises ‘a decision pretty soon’

Lawyers for Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre, who has long accused the royal of sexual abuse, faced off in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, in his attempt to dismiss her civil lawsuit.

The arguments via videoconference came a day after the unsealing of a 2009 settlement between Giuffre and the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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Hiding behind the loophole of a dead sex trafficker? Stay classy, Andrew | Marina Hyde

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‘Potential defendants’ are sweating (if they can) over whether Virginia Giuffre’s settlement with Epstein will protect them

Where does Prince Andrew drive to in his brand new, £80,000 Range Rover – seemingly his only appearances these days in anything that could be considered the outside world? The duke is often pictured motoring broodingly out of his Royal Lodge home in Windsor at the wheel of this high-performance vehicle, perhaps making his in-car security detail listen to a podcast about putting, or a funny song about a whoopee cushion. (The precise contours of Andrew’s cultural life have always remained a tantalising mystery.) Some local visits to his mother at Windsor Castle have been chalked up, as well they might be. But we’ll come to the duke’s ominous financial reliance on the Queen in a minute.

Were The Artist Formerly Known as Airmiles to take an aimless intra-Berkshire spin this morning, he would be able to listen to news reports concerning the newly unsealed settlement his accuser reached with Jeffrey Epstein in 2009. Virginia Giuffre signed a $500,000 deal with Epstein, and Andrew’s lawyers believe her agreement not to sue anyone who could be described as a “potential defendant” could get HRH off the hook of having to face, in civil court, her claims that he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was a minor. (He denies everything, vehemently.)

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre’s legal deal with Jeffrey Epstein released

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Unsealing stems from Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuit against duke, filed in Manhattan federal court in August

A near-dozen-year-old legal settlement between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender whom she accused of sexual abuse, was released on Monday. Giuffre received $500,000 in her lawsuit against Epstein, court papers revealed.

The unsealing stemmed from Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew, which she filed on 9 August in Manhattan federal court.

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Court to unseal deal between Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre

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Prince Andrew’s lawyers believe 2009 agreement could shield him from Giuffre’s civil sexual assault lawsuit

A crunch week in Prince Andrew’s fight to avoid a public trial over claims he sexually assaulted a 17-year-old trafficked by the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein begins on Monday, when a New York court unseals a confidential 2009 deal between Epstein and the alleged victim.

Lawyers for the Duke of York, who “unequivocally denies” the claims made by Virginia Giuffre, believe her agreement with Epstein could shield him from her civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse in 2001.

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Ghislaine Maxwell, the Demon Queen, is behind bars. Does she have a secret that could unlock her shackles?

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Our writer sat through the trial in New York and reports on the humiliation of the mwah-mwah princess, her repeated failures to end Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and the chances of her cutting a deal with the Feds

Guilty, five times over, Ghislaine Maxwell, shackled, sits in the sweat box as it crawls over Brooklyn Bridge along with the rest of the rush-hour little people she used to fly over, saying a last goodbye to the Imperial City’s billion-dollar stalagmites. The one-time Princess Mwah-Mwah is now the Demon Queen, facing 30 years, the rest of her life in prison, not some Disneyland of rightwing fantasy but a bone pit of the bad, the mad and the broken locked up until the end of age.

She has a secret key that could unlock her shackles. What if she sings, tells the feds what she knows, gives up the overmighty men who, along with her one-time lover Jeffrey Epstein, abused women more child than adult back in her pomp? She could cut her jail time down to 10 years and be out in seven, thanks to good behaviour.

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US judge delivers double setback to Prince Andrew’s abuse case battle

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Pressure grows on duke to settle alleged victim’s claim before key hearing this week

Two of Prince Andrew’s efforts to prevent or stall the progression of Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s sex assault lawsuit against him were blocked on Saturday when a US federal judge ordered the prince’s lawyers to turn over key legal documents, increasing pressure to settle claims before a crucial court hearing this week.

Judge Lewis A Kaplan, in a written order, told the prince’s lawyers they must turn over documents on the schedule that has been set in the lawsuit brought by Guiffre who claims she was abused – aged 17 – by the prince on multiple occasions in 2001 while she was being sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein.

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Maxwell conviction increases scrutiny of other women who worked for Epstein

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Four employees and assistants were described in a 2007 non-prosecution agreement as ‘potential co-conspirators’

The conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell on sex-trafficking charges this week has increased the scrutiny of others who worked for or socialized with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein for years, and their knowledge of the pair’s activities.

Attention has largely focused on prominent male associates of Epstein, including Prince Andrew, who faces a civil suit brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Giuffre alleges the Queen’s son had sex with her on three occasions two decades ago when, aged 17, she had been sexually trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, allegations Andrew vehemently denies.

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Speculation grows that Maxwell may try to cut a deal for reduced sentence

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Experts say any deal depends on whether US government believes it is worth investigating network that may have been involved

Now that the British former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted in her sex-trafficking trial, speculation is growing that she may try to cut a deal and become a government witness in any broader investigation into the elite social circle of her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell would be aiming for a reduced sentence by naming powerful names when it comes to others who may be involved in Epstein’s crimes.

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‘One of the worst crimes imaginable’: Ghislaine Maxwell guilty in sex-trafficking trial – video

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Prosecutors hailed the verdict in the Manhattan trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British former socialite found guilty of sex trafficking in connection with her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls. Maxwell's lawyers said they were disappointed with the decision and had started working on the appeal process

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Prince Andrew emerges with barely a mention in Ghislaine Maxwell trial

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Analysis: there was no cross-examination of the prince’s friend and his accuser was not called to give evidence

For the Duke of York, the fact he was barely mentioned in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial will have been an undoubted relief. With Maxwell declining the stand, no opening of her “little black book” of society contacts and, crucially, no sign of his accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Prince Andrew was a mere footnote in the New York proceedings.

Maxwell opted not to give evidence before being found guilty on five of six charges, saying there was “no need” because prosecutors had failed to prove their case, so the subject of Andrew was not raised with her via cross-examination.

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