A lawyer for Prince Andrew, who was sued last month by a woman who accused him of sexually abusing her as a minor, said Monday in a Manhattan court that the lawsuit would probably not be valid according to the terms of a previous confidential agreement – one that the prince’s lawyers have said the woman arrived with Jeffrey Epstein.
The hearing, which took place in the lawsuit followed by Virginia Giuffre, one of Mr. Epstein’s most prominent accusations, was the first public response from Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and suggests his legal team will try to defeat any attempt. to allow the procedure to continue. Prince Andrew’s lawyer also argued on Monday that his client had not received the proper legal documents in Britain.
Attorney Andrew B. Brettler said Ms. Giuffre’s lawsuit was “unfounded, unfeasible and potentially illegal.”
“We have major concerns about the appropriateness of this lawsuit,” Brettler said in a hearing in Manhattan Federal District Court.
Mrs. Giuffre, 38, said in her lawsuit that Prince Andrew, 61, Queen Elizabeth’s second child, sexually abused her when she was under 18 at Mr. Epstein’s mansion in New York and Mr. Epstein’s private island, Little St. James, in the US Virgin Islands.
She also said in the lawsuit that Prince Andrew, along with Mr Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew at Mrs Maxwell’s home in London.
Prince Andrew, who has denied the allegations against Mrs Giuffre, has not been charged with any crime, but the investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan of Mr Epstein and Mrs Maxwell has long been under way.
Epstein, 66, was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking and, a month later, was found dead hanging in his Manhattan prison cell; death was ruled a suicide. One indictment alleges that Mr. Epstein had recruited dozens of underage girls to have sex with him at his Manhattan mansion and Palm Beach estate, after which he paid them hundreds of dollars in cash.
Ms Maxwell, who was arrested in July 2020, is on trial in November on charges of aiding Mr Epstein in recruiting, preparing for and ultimately sexually abusing underage girls. In one case, accused of indictment, she was involved in the sex trafficking of a 14-year-old girl, preparing her to have sex with Mr. Epstein and then paying him. Mrs. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Mrs. Giuffre has said in previous lawsuits that Epstein had offered her several times to Prince Andrew to have sex when he was a teenager.
Mrs. Giuffre’s lawsuit against Prince Andrew includes a photograph of her with her arm around her waist, with Mrs. Maxwell smiling in the background. Mrs Giuffre’s lawsuit said the photo was taken at Maxwell’s home before Prince Andrew sexually abused her.
Other Prince Andrew’s lawyers indicated last week in a letter to Mrs Giuffre’s lawyers that the prince would challenge the lawsuit alleging that Mrs Giuffre’s lawyers had not adequately addressed him with the complaint, a routine step that goes giving formal notice to the accused has been sued.
“We are not instructed to appear in the lawsuit filed by Ms. Giuffre in the southern district of New York and we are not told that we agree to notify this claim on behalf of the Duke,” Blackfords’ attorneys wrote.
Lawyers also wrote that Ms. Giuffre’s claim against Prince Andrew may not be valid under a settlement in 2009 in a lawsuit against Mr. Epstein in Florida.
Mrs. Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, had attached on Friday a copy of the letter from the prince’s lawyers. In it, Boies said the lawyers’ suggestion that the previous agreement “somehow frees Prince Andrew from the claims” made by Ms. Giuffre was “wrong” and noted that Prince Andrew had not been part of the previous case.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told the court Monday that he will hear arguments on whether the lawsuit was properly served. But he seemed to question the usefulness of the effort.
“I can see that a lot of legal fees are spent and time is wasted and delayed, which may ultimately not be terribly productive for anyone,” the judge said.
Susan C. Beachy contributed to the research.