US judge decides key document in Prince Andrew’s lawsuit can be kept secret
NEW YORK – A 2008 settlement agreement that a lawyer for Prince Andrews said would protect him from allegations that he sexually assaulted an American woman when he was 17 years old can remain a secret, a New York judge ruled today.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan gives the verdict in a brief order released the day after Andrew’s attorney asked that the document be kept sealed when he makes arguments explaining why he believes that the judge should reject the lawsuit. Attorney Andrew Brettler said he would attach a copy of the agreement with the arguments.
In the August lawsuit, Virginia Giuffre alleges the Prince abused her several times in 2001. Andrew said he never had sex with her.
Brettler, who called the lawsuit “baseless,” said neither the prince nor Giuffre claimed the release agreement had to remain sealed, but requested that it remain secret because it was subject to a protection order from another judge presiding over a federal civil suit in New York.
The settlement agreement was reached between Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his cell in 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial against sex trafficking in a New York federal prison. His death was counted as a suicide.
In today’s filing, Kaplan states that Jeffrey Epstein’s estate also does not claim that the settlement agreement must remain sealed.
Kaplan seemed to urge the parties to ask the judge in the other case – Loretta A. Preska – to agree to unseal the document, saying that Preska “could propose …”
“But she has to say that,” he writes and decides that the agreement can and can remain under lock and key unless Preska and Kaplan decide otherwise.
In yesterday’s filing, Brettler said the agreement “releases Prince Andrew and others from any alleged liability arising out of the claims Ms. Giuffre has made here against Prince Andrew”.
A hearing on Prince Andrew’s lawsuit is scheduled for next week.
The Associated Press does not usually identify people who claim to have been sexually assaulted unless they want to come out publicly, as Giuffre did.
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