Virginia Giuffre might not be able to sue Prince Andrew in New York
Prince Andrew sex accuser Virginia Giuffre may not be able
to sue the embattled royal in New York because she actually lives in Australia,
his lawyers argued in a court filing Tuesday.
In her complaint against the Duke of York, Giuffre claims to
live in Colorado — but she actually resides in a $1.9 million home in Australia
with her longtime husband, lawyers for Andrew argued in the letter filed as
part of her Manhattan federal-court civil suit.
“Ms. Giuffre’s ties to Colorado are very limited. 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,” the court filing states.
Because of the apparent discrepancy, Andrew’s lawyers have
asked the judge to require her to answer written questions about her residency
and to sit for a two-hour sworn deposition about the issue.
If Giuffre does in fact live in Australia, she lacks the
ability to sue the royal in New York through “diversity jurisdiction,” the
prince’s lawyers wrote.
Diversity jurisdiction allows US citizens to sue other
Americans and foreign nationals in federal court but does not extend to
Americans who live abroad, the lawyers said.
Giuffre, a longtime Jeffrey Epstein accuser, sued Prince
Andrew in Manhattan federal court in August, claiming she was trafficked to the
royal by Epstein and his accused madam, Ghislaine Maxwell.
In one incident detailed in the suit, Giuffre says she was
forced to have sex with the prince at Maxwell’s London home.
“During this encounter, Epstein, Maxwell and Prince Andrew
forced Plaintiff, a child, to have sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew
against her will,” the suit states.
In November, Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, said he intends
to depose up to a dozen people as part of the suit, including the prince
himself.
Last week, Boies told Fox News that Meghan Markle — who is
married to the royal’s nephew, Prince Harry — could also be among those deposed
in the suit.
“We want to have at least a couple of depositions of people
who knew Prince Andrew and were sort of members of his inner circle at various
times and who might have either have knowledge themselves or have knowledge
about people who would have knowledge,” Boies told the news channel.
“Meghan Markle, because of her position in the family, is
one of those people,” he said.
“And because she’s in the United States, it’s easier to take
her deposition than people in the United Kingdom. She is somebody who we are
considering,” Boies added.
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