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

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.

Giuffre has long accused Epstein and his sometime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell – now a convicted sex trafficker, after her New York trial – of forcing her into sex with the royal when she was 17.

He vehemently maintains his innocence.

Andrew filed Giuffre’s settlement with Epstein as part of his attempt to dismiss her case, arguing that it shields him. Lawyers for the prince contend the settlement contains provisions that bar Giuffre from taking legal action against many Epstein associates.

The unsealed settlement states that upon receipt of the stipulated sum, Giuffre, referred to under her maiden name, agrees to “remise, release, acquit, satisfy and forever discharge the said second parties and any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant … from all, and all manner of, action and actions of Virginia Roberts, including state or federal, cause and causes of action”.

Andrew is not mentioned. Nor is the lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who Giuffre has accused of sexual misconduct facilitated by Epstein, which he has repeatedly denied.

In a court filing on 29 October, Andrew’s attorneys said: “Giuffre settled her sex-trafficking and sexual-abuse claims against Epstein in 2009. In doing so, she provided Epstein with a general release of all claims against him and numerous other individuals and entities.

“To avoid being dragged into future legal disputes, Epstein negotiated for this broad release, insisting that it cover any and all persons who Giuffre identified as potential targets of future lawsuits, regardless of the merit – or lack thereof – to any such claims.”

The attorneys also said: “Because Prince Andrew is a senior member of the British royal family, he falls into one of the expressly identified categories of persons, ie, royalty, released from liability under the release agreement, along with politicians, academicians, businessmen and others allegedly associated with Epstein.

“As a third-party beneficiary of the release agreement, Prince Andrew is entitled to enforce the general release contained therein.”

Lawyers for Andrew will argue for dismissal on Tuesday. Giuffre’s settlement is discussed extensively in their motion to dismiss.

Attorneys for Andrew did not comment on Monday.

A representative for Giuffre’s lawyers said the release was “irrelevant to Ms Giuffre’s claim against Prince Andrew” as it “does not mention Prince Andrew”.

“He did not even know about it. He could not have been a ‘potential defendant’ in the settled case against Jeffrey Epstein both because he was not subject to jurisdiction in Florida and because the Florida case involved federal claims to which he was not a part. The actual parties to the release have made clear that Prince Andrew was not covered by it.

“Lastly, the reason we sought to have the release made public was to refute the claims being made about it by Prince Andrew’s PR campaign.”

The settlement with Epstein has also come up in Giuffre’s lawsuit against Dershowitz. On 16 April 2019, she filed a defamation suit over his denials of sexual misconduct. Dershowitz filed the Epstein settlement agreement in his fight against that suit.

“Professor Dershowitz, as a third-party beneficiary of the 2009 settlement agreement, was entitled to rely upon and enforce the terms of that secret deal,” lawyers for Andrew said.

On Monday, Dershowitz told the Guardian the settlement prevented Giuffre from legal action against him.

“I’m delighted that this document was unsealed,” he said. “I want all documents, all photographs, all videotapes, I want everything unsealed so the whole truth comes out.

“This document demonstrates that, in exchange for $500,000 … she agreed that she would not sue any of the following people, and they included anybody who she had accused or could accuse, including [academics] and royalty.”

On 14 December, judges in the Prince Andrew and Dershowitz cases said: “Mr Epstein, as is well known, is deceased. The document is well known to Ms Giuffre and, although under seal, has been available to all parties in these cases for some time.

“We question whether any proper purpose would be served by the continued secrecy of the document save, perhaps, the dollar amount of the settlement it provided for.”

On 29 December, judges ordered the unsealing, saying nobody – including representatives of Epstein’s estate – had made an adequate showing otherwise.

Lawyers for Giuffre have requested documents as part of her litigation, such as proof of Prince Andrew’s claim that he cannot sweat.

Giuffre has claimed the duke was “sweating profusely all over me” at a London discotheque on a night when she alleges they had sex. Andrew told the BBC the allegation could not be true, “because I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time”.

The prince also maintained that on the day cited by Giuffre he took his daughter Beatrice to a late-afternoon children’s party at a Pizza Express restaurant in Woking, Surrey. After that, he said, he was home with his children all night.

Prince Andrew’s profile has been damaged considerably by his association with Maxwell and Epstein.

On 29 December, a federal jury in Manhattan found Maxwell, the daughter of the late press baron Robert Maxwell, guilty on five counts for luring girls as young as 14 into Epstein’s orbit for him to sexually abuse.

Maxwell, 60, says she is innocent. Her lawyers have said they plan to appeal.

Epstein, who also counted former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton among his associates, was arrested in July 2019 for sex trafficking teen girls. He killed himself about a month after his arrest in a New York jail, while awaiting trial.

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