Last August, Virginia Roberts Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Prince Andrew, accusing him of sexually abusing her in 2001. At the time, she was 17; among the places where she alleges that Prince Andrew sexually abused her was the home of Jeffrey Epstein.
This week, Giuffre’s lawsuit is set to face a significant test as to whether or not the case will be heard in front of a jury. As The Guardian reports, a court in New York is set to unseal records related to an agreement Giuffre made with Epstein in 2009. According to the article, Prince Andrew’s legal team feels that this agreement would prevent Giuffre’s lawsuit from going any further.
Whether or not the judge handling the case, Lewis A. Kaplan, agrees with that argument remains to be seen, however. If the lawsuit moves forward, depositions in the case would be the next step.
A new report at The Daily Beast has more information on this phase of the case — including the news that, if the case does proceed, Prince Andrew will likely need to provide medical documentation to back up a claim he made that he is incapable of sweating. In a recent interview he gave to the BBC show Newsnight, he made that claim in response to Giuffre describing Prince Andrew as “sweating all over me” in a 2019 interview.
What such documentation might look like — or whether it even exists — will come to the forefront rather quickly following the judge’s decision this week.
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