US Justice made public this Monday a confidential agreement signed in 2009 according to which the late mogul Jeffrey Epstein paid Virginia Giuffre $ 500,000 to drop her allegations of alleged sexual abuse when she was a minor, a document that defense attorneys for Prince Andrew of England hope will serve to dismiss the case against him.
The extrajudicial pact, which until now remained secret, establishes that any legal action by Giuffre against Epstein and against other “potential defendants” in the alleged plot of sex trafficking of minors for which the billionaire was investigated and is being investigated will be dismissed. a New York courthouse. This clause, although it does not mention Andrés, could shield the prince, accused by Giuffre in a court in New York of having had sex with Giuffre when she was still a minor in one of Epstein’s mansions.
Maxwell, Epstein’s right-hand man, convicted of sex trafficking by a NY jury
EFE
The jury, which began its deliberations on Monday, December 20, found Maxwell, who has just turned 60, guilty of the most serious charges
That is what the defense of the son of Elizabeth II of England expects, who has insisted on the publication of the agreement and who defends that it frees the prince “from any potential responsibility“According to lawyer Andrew Brettler said during a hearing last September. Prince Andrew, who has denied even knowing Virginia Giuffre – despite a photo widely disseminated in the media shows him grabbing her by the waist – has tried to cancel the trial against him on several occasions, recently for defects of form.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, an oral hearing is scheduled to hear a request from the defense for the case to be dismissed. Giuffre, 38, claims he was a victim of sex trafficking by financier Jeffrey Epstein and his right hand, Ghislaine Maxwell, and that as a result he suffered abuse by Prince Andrew when he was 17 years old in London, New York and on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
The deal
The woman – currently residing in Australia – filed a civil lawsuit against the British prince last August in New York, under the Child Victims Law. The hearing scheduled for Tuesday will be the first since Maxwell found guilty of sex trafficking last week in a trial closely related to Giuffre’s, albeit criminally.
The agreement signed by Giuffre and Epstein also establishes that its terms “will not constitute admission of responsibility or guilt by any party “and that its terms” will not be used or disclosed in any court or arbitration or other legal proceeding except to enforce what is stipulated in this agreement, “although the validity that the New York judge grants to that agreement remains to be seen. text.