The criminal trial of millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in his cell in 2019, continues to reveal secrets. This Monday the confidentiality agreement that Epstein reached with Virginia Giuffre in 2009 was made public, for which he paid $ 500,000 (about 442,000 euros at the current exchange rate) so that she would not sue the millionaire or anyone related to him. Giuffre says that, at age 17, Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell – recently convicted of trafficking in minors – forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew of England. Despite the agreement, the alleged victim continues with her lawsuit against the third son of Isabel II.
Giuffre filed his charges against the Duke of York on August 9 in a New York court. “I demand that Prince Andrew answer for what he did to me,” the alleged victim said at the time. “The powerful and the rich are not exempt from being held accountable for their actions,” he added. The plaintiff, who is now 38 years old, is seeking damages for sexual abuse.
Prince Andrew, 61, maintains that he is innocent. His defense has tried to use in court the agreement, in which the name of the duke does not appear, so that the case is dismissed. The lawyers affirm that the pact also shields the son of Isabel II, since one of the payment requirements was not to process new legal actions not only against the deceased millionaire, but also with other figures with whom he is associated. The agreement stipulates that “any other person or entity that may have been included as a potential defendant will be released.”
Andrew Brettler, the prince’s lawyer, assures that the agreement exempts the Duke of York from any responsibility because the pact covered members of “royalty.” David Boies, Giuffre’s lawyer, who now resides in Australia, assures, however, that this protection is limited to those who are linked to the Epstein process that was followed in the State of Florida, and that, therefore, Prince Andrew you cannot use the agreement.
District Judge Lewis Kaplan will decide whether the pact reached with Epstein protects the Duke of York. The prince’s defense will have another chance to petition the judge to dismiss the case at a hearing this morning. Brettler also affirms in her arguments that the Manhattan court does not have jurisdiction in the case, since the plaintiff does not reside in the United States, despite the fact that in her brief she affirmed that she had an address in the State of Colorado.
Kaplan has said that, if it goes ahead and if there is no agreement between the parties, the trial would begin between September and December of this year. Last week, Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting and grooming several minors to have sex with Epstein or some of his friends between 1994 and 2004. Giuffre’s indictment is separate from the process against Epstein’s then-girlfriend, but the ruling may have an impact on this judgment.
The Epstein case forced the Duke to abandon his foundations and many of his philanthropic activities stemming from the Windsor obligations. In an interview with the BBC at the end of 2019, where he tried to clear his name after the suicide in prison of his friend, who awaited his trial, the member of the royal family maintained that he was willing to collaborate with the investigation. It has not, to date.
Giuffre, one of nearly 30 women who have testified, testified before the judge how the Duke of York abused her three times. The lawsuit contends that one of Prince Andrew’s abuses occurred at the London home of Maxwell, considered to be Epstein’s Madame. On another occasion, the court document filed last August notes, he abused her at Epstein’s New York mansion. The third time the abuses occurred on Epstein’s private island in the Virgin Islands.
The financier led a pedophile plot for more than a decade with which he recruited dozens of girls to sexually exploit them. His friends included former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, powerful attorney Alan Dershowitz, and the Duke of York, among others.
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