Prince Andrew paid a “substantial amount of money” to settle the sex abuse case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre.
David Boies, the famed attorney who represented Giuffre, made the comment in a wide ranging discussion about the case with the Daily Mail.
He also said that Andrew went from “stonewalling” to settling the civil sex abuse lawsuit‚ in which Giuffre accused him of raping her three times, in less than a week, so desperate was the prince to get “out.”
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Boies also commented on reports that Andrew wants to overturn the settlement, saying: “If they want to get out of the settlement all they have to do is call me and let me take Andrew’s deposition and go to trial.”
The case was settled just a week before Andrew was due to be deposed.
Boies told the Mail: “From our side we said there had to be a substantial amount of money and there had to be an acceptable statement from Prince Andrew. Those were really the two initial stumbling blocks and they were resolved within a few hours of each other.”
Boies said: “Prince Andrew just wanted out. He was realistic enough not to have any demands. He just wanted to pay not very much money and didn’t want to acknowledge Virginia or what he’d done… his position was that Virginia had made all this up and wasn’t really a victim.”
Giuffre has long alleged that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell forced her to become their teenage “sex slave” and trafficked her to powerful men.
Boies told the Mail that Andrew “claimed he didn’t know anything about Epstein’s sex trafficking and had nothing to apologize for.”
The lawyer said of Andrew’s dramatic decision to settle with Giuffre: “I can’t think of a turnaround that changed as dramatically in such a short a time as this one did. I have a sense that Andrew probably had mixed emotions. I suspect there was a substantial amount of relief but also a substantial amount of discomfort as to what he had to acknowledge and the amount of money he had to pay.”
Boies declined to comment on the financial terms of the settlement.
Boies said a memoir by Andrew might “help his reputation, depending on what it said.”
He said: “I believe both as a matter of religious faith and human compassion in the possibility of redemption. I would not put Prince Andrew or any other child of God beyond the possibility of redemption but redemption has to begin with the admission of sin and thus far he has been disinclined to do that.”
