Attorneys: Prince Andrew can’t be sued since accuser not in U.S.
NEW YORK — A lawsuit by an American who claims Prince Andrew sexually abused her when she was 17 might have to be thrown out because she no longer lives in the U.S., lawyers for the Prince said in a court filing Tuesday.
Attorneys Andrew Brettler and Melissa Lerner wrote they recently discovered Virginia Giuffre has lived in Australia all but two of the last 19 years and cannot claim she’s a resident of Colorado, where she hasn’t lived since at least 2019.
In an August lawsuit, Giuffre claimed the prince abused her on multiple occasions in 2001.
The prince’s lawyers in October asked Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to throw out the lawsuit, saying the prince “never sexually abused or assaulted” Giuffre and they believed she sued Andrew “to achieve another payday at his expense and at the expense of those closest to him.” The lawyers acknowledged Giuffre may well be a victim of sexual abuse by financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial.
Last month, Kaplan said a trial in Giuffre’s lawsuit against the prince could occur between September and December 2022.
But the prince’s lawyers say the new information about Giuffre’s residence should result in the suspension of any further progress in the lawsuit toward trial, which would include depositions of Andrew and Giuffre, until the issue is settled as to whether her foreign residence disqualifies her from suing Andrew in the U.S.
They asked the judge to order Giuffre to respond to written legal requests about her residency and submit to a two-hour deposition on the issue.
The lawyers wrote Giuffre has an Australian driver’s license and was living in a $1.9 million home in Perth, western Australia, with her three children and husband, who is Australian.