Jeffrey Epstein’s estate has agreed to disclose a confidential settlement agreement that Prince Andrew invoked in an attempt to scuttle a lawsuit filed against him by Virginia Giuffre, a U.S. court filing revealed on Thursday.
During a court hearing on on Sept. 13, the prince’s attorney Andrew Brettler claimed the deal would expose Giuffre’s lawsuit as “baseless, nonviable, and potentially unlawful.”
“There has been a settlement agreement that the plaintiff has entered into in a prior action that releases the Duke and others from any and all potential liability,” Brettler said earlier this month to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who appeared to have little patience for the claim.
At the time, the prince had been disputing that Giuffre served him properly with the lawsuit, and the judge wanted to resolve that issue before turning to different arguments. Prince Andrew formally stipulated last week that Giuffre successfully served him with court papers.
Giuffre’s high-powered attorney David Boies called the Epstein agreement in question “irrelevant” to the Duke of York’s case—but the attorney agreed he has the right to see it.
“Although we believe that the release is irrelevant to the case against Prince Andrew, now that service has been accepted and the case is proceeding to a determination on the merits, we believe that counsel for Prince Andrew have a right to review the release and to make whatever arguments they believe appropriate based on it,” Boies wrote in letter on a Sept. 23.
The agreement is currently under a protective order in Giuffre’s litigation with former Epstein lawyer and Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School Alan Dershowitz. Giuffre has also accused Dershowitz of sexually abusing her. Dershowitz, a Boies rival who vehemently denied the allegations, countersued Giuffre for defamation. He has also sued Boies.
On Thursday, Boies followed up with another letter informing the judge presiding over this dispute about the breakthrough regarding Epstein’s estate.
“Jeffrey Epstein’s Estate has now consented to Ms. Giuffre providing a copy of the confidential agreement at issue to Prince Andrew,” Boies told Senior U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska. “We thus request permission from the Court pursuant to this Court’s Protective Order to furnish a copy of the release to Prince Andrew’s counsel.”
Giuffre, one of the most widely known women to accuse since-deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein of abuse, has sued three other people for allegedly sexually exploiting her. Giuffre’s civil complaint alleging that accused sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell turned her into Epstein’s “sex slave” helped spark the British heiress’s criminal prosecution. The lawsuits against Dershowitz and Prince Andrew sprung from allegations that first became public during the litigation with Maxwell.
Giuffre’s latest lawsuit accuses Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her in three locations: Epstein’s New York mansion and private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as in Maxwell’s London home. The latter locale is where the prince was pictured with his arm around Giuffre’s waist.
Giuffre filed her claims on Aug. 9, as the window was closing on the New York Child Victims Act, which suspended the statute of limitations on civil allegations involving alleged sexual abuse against minors. She was 17 years old when she alleges the conduct occurred.
Andrew has not been charged with any crimes.
The prince’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Read the filing below:
(Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
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