After days of deliberation, US Judge Lewis Kaplan finally announced his decision on whether or not Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit against Prince Andrew will move forward in court. The royal’s legal team tried every trick in the book to have the case dismissed, but to no avail. The judge ruled that Prince Andrew will be facing trial and that Giuffre will have her say in court.
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Massive blow for the royal family
In 2021, Virginia Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Prince Andrew, accusing him of sexual assault on three accounts which took place when she was underage. Giuffre is a victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking ring and was introduced to the royal through the two sex criminals.
Ever since the royal was slapped with the lawsuit, his legal team has been trying to use every loophole to have her case dismissed. They mainly argued that a previous $500,000 settlement, made between Giuffre and Epstein, included a stipulation which stated that the victim could not go after any of Epstein’s close contacts. They believed that the condition applied to Prince Andrew as he was a long-time associate of the business tycoon.
$500K settlement
Judge Kaplan did not, however, agree with their argument. He said, as quoted by The Independent and The Guardian:
The 2009 cannot be said to demonstrate, clearly and unambiguously, that the parties intended the instrument ‘directly’, ‘primarily’, or ‘substantially’ to benefit Prince Andrew.
The court’s job at this juncture is simply to determine whether there are two or more reasonable interpretations of that document. If there are, the determination of the ‘right’ or controlling interpretation must await further proceedings.
The Independent reported that they had reached out to Buckingham Palace for comments but the institution replied saying:
We would not comment on what is an ongoing legal matter.
