Can avoid being mauled by Shark’
York for his deposition because the FBI still wants to question him as part of their criminal investigation into Epstein.
“And David Boies will not want the option of a video conference. He will want to face Andrew and watch his body language, which is why his team will be more than prepared to fly to London.
“They have every right to insist on an in-person deposition, but this might play to Andrew’s advantage if he selects the intimidating atmosphere of Buckingham Palace rather than his lawyer’s office.”
If the Duke, 61, who was yesterday spotted leavingwindsor in his car with Sarah, Duchess ofyork, fails to comply with the deposition he would almost certainly forfeit the civil suit for alleged rape and sexual abuse brought by his accuservirginia Giuffre.
She claims to have been ordered to have sex with him on three separate occasions when she was 17 – allegations the Prince has always strongly denied.
Last night, however, Kuvin, whose Florida law firm is still fighting civil and criminal cases on behalf of other alleged Epstein “sex slaves”, said he believes Andrew’s advisers should urge him to try to settle out of court.
He added: “How much more reputational damage can he endure?
“What emerges from a brutal, hours-long deposition is likely to be even more damaging than his infamous BBC interview and will inevitably be made public in court.
“David Boies’s team will have gone through that with a toothcomb and will demand medical records to support his claim he had a sweating disorder and family witnesses to back up his assertion he was at a birthday party with his daughter at a pizza joint on the night Virginia says they had sex in London.”
Kuvin predicts Andrew’s disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis – in which he talked of his friendship with Epstein for the first time – will seem “extremely tame” in comparison to the wringer Boies will put him through.
And he added: “If I were on Andrew’s legal team I would be using every legal back channel I could to try to reach an out-of-court settlement – unless they are 100 per cent convinced he can win.”
Despite the fact Ms Giuffre, now a 38-year-old mother-of-three, has publicly declared she is determined to go to trial and “achieve justice”, Kuvin pointed out that 95 per cent of US civil cases are settled before trial, adding: “There is a price for everything.”
Boies appeared to agree last week when he conceded: “Settlement is always a possibility.”
Meanwhile, Prince Andrew may face more uncomfortable allegations in a revealing documentary due to be broadcast ontuesday at 9pm on ITV.
Ghislaine, Prince Andrew And The Paedophile further investigates the shocking details of Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial, at which she was convicted of sex trafficking for financier Jeffrey Epstein.
ITV is keeping full programme details under wraps before the screening as Maxwell, 60, awaits sentencing in a New York federal jail.
‘The Boies team will
demand witnesses’