Prince Andrew's Lawyers Were 'Locked In Emergency Talks' After Ghislaine Maxwell Was Found Guilty: Report
After Prince Andrew's pal Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on five counts in the recent sex trafficking scandal on December 29, the royal's lawyers are apparently figuring out their next move.
According to The Mirror, Andrew's lawyers "were locked in emergency talks last night," and they think Virginia Roberts — who is suing Andrew for allegedly raping her when she was 17 years old — has a "weakened" case.
One of the four victims named "Carolyn" said Roberts introduced her to Jeffrey Epstein, the late pedophile who died in 2019 — not Andrew.
"Andrew's U.S. team immediately seized upon Carolyn's testimony," a legal source said. "They believe she holds a smoking gun to any possible role Virginia played in Epstein's pyramid scheme of abuse. Andrew's lawyers have convinced him that if he is to stand any chance of preventing her case from going to court, they need to fight with fire and that nothing should be off-limits. They believe Carolyn's evidence seriously, if not fatality, weakened the case he faces."
Andrew has confirmed that he ran in the same circles as Epstein, but he has maintained his innocence over the past few years after allegations have been made against him.
"It didn't happen. I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened," he said. "I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever."
Andrew's trial will supposedly occur between September and December 2022.
However, he is trying to get the case thrown out in the U.S. as Roberts does not currently live there.
“Recently discovered evidence suggests that the Court does not have subject matter jurisdiction over this action because Plaintiff Virginia L. Giuffre cannot satisfy the elements of diversity jurisdiction," the documents state. “Notwithstanding that, in her complaint, Ms. Giuffre alleges she is a citizen of the State of Colorado, the evidence demonstrates that she is actually domiciled in Australia, where she has lived for all but two of the past nineteen years. It is undisputed that, at the time she filed this action, Ms. Giuffre had an Australian driver’s license and was living in a AU$1.9 million (£1 million) home in Perth, Western Australia, where she and her husband have been raising their three children."
“In reality, Ms. Giuffre’s ties to Colorado are very limited," the documents read. "She has not lived there since at least 2019 – approximately two years before she filed this lawsuit against Prince Andrew – and potentially, according to her own deposition testimony, not since October 2015. Despite having moved to Australia in 2019 or earlier, it appears that Ms Giuffre only recently registered to vote in Colorado using her mother and stepfather’s mailing address there. In light of the apparent lack of diversity jurisdiction, Prince Andrew respectfully requests that the court order Ms. Giuffre to respond to targeted written discovery requests pertaining to her domicile and submit to a two-hour remote deposition limited to the issue of her domicile.”
