Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers demand proof that Prince Andrew can’t sweat
By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
Prince Andrew has been asked to provide documents proving his “alleged medical inability to sweat” in a court filing by attorneys for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has accused the royal of sexual assault in a US civil lawsuit.
In the court document filed Thursday, Giuffre’s attorneys also ask for any documents relating to anyone Andrew met at a Pizza Express restaurant in Woking, England, or at Club Tramp nightclub in London, and to his travel to and from those places.
In her lawsuit, Giuffre alleges she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and forced to have sex with his friends — including the prince — and that Andrew was aware she was underage (17) in the US. Prince Andrew strongly denies the allegations.
In a BBC interview in 2019, Andrew said he had taken his elder daughter to a party at a pizza restaurant on the night in 2001 when it is alleged that he had sex with Giuffre. He also said in the interview that for many years he could not sweat, countering the allegations made by Giuffre that he was sweating profusely before they had sex in London when she was 17.
“I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady,” he said of Giuffre.
In claims made prior to filing her lawsuit, Giuffre alleges that in 2001 Epstein brought her to London, where she was introduced to Prince Andrew and went dancing at a nightclub with Epstein, his then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and the prince.
In a BBC interview also broadcast in 2019, Giuffre said she had been taken to the Tramp nightclub where, Giuffre alleged, Andrew asked her to dance and was “sweating all over me.”
Giuffre’s attorneys have also demanded any documents concerning Andrew’s travel to or from, or presence in, Epstein’s planes, Florida, New York, New Mexico and the United States Virgin Islands, according to their filing Thursday, as well as documents relating to “all gifts or other things of value” received by Andrew from Epstein or Maxwell “including but not limited to puppets.”
“If Prince Andrew truly has no documents concerning his communications with Maxwell or Epstein, his travel to Florida, New York, or various locations in London, his alleged medical inability to sweat, or anything that would support the alibis he gave during his BBC interview, then continuing with discovery will not be burdensome to him at all,” the filing said.
Oral arguments in the case are set for January 4, where attorneys for the 61-year-old prince are expected to argue for the lawsuit’s dismissal.
Andrew’s legal team claimed in a motion filed Tuesday that the court does not have jurisdiction over the case. Giuffre’s attorneys said the motion “lacks any basis in law or fact” and urged the court to deny it, according to the Thursday court filing. The judge denied the motion on Friday.
US judges have also ruled that a confidential 2009 settlement agreement between Epstein and Giuffre, which may have also referenced Prince Andrew, should be released publicly next week.
Maxwell, a British socialite, was found guilty by a New York jury Wednesday on five counts relating to her role in Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls.
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