David Boies, the star attorney representing Virginia Roberts Giuffre in her legal action against Prince Andrew, may seek to depose Meghan Markle as part of Giuffre’s civil suit, as he believes she may have picked up “important knowledge” about the embattled royal’s behavior.
“She is somebody we can count on to tell the truth,” Boies told The Daily Beast.
Markle, he said, was a potential deposition subject for three reasons: “One; she is in the U.S. so we have jurisdiction over her. Two; she is somebody who obviously, at least for a period of time, was a close associate of Prince Andrew and hence is in a position to perhaps have seen what he did, and perhaps if not to have seen what he did to have heard people talk about it. Because of her past association with him, she may very well have important knowledge, and will certainly have some knowledge.
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“Three; she is somebody who we can count on to tell the truth. She checks all three boxes.”
If Giuffre’s case gets past a January 4 motion to dismiss by Andrew’s side, the suit will enter full discovery mode, in the course of which both Andrew and Giuffre will have to give videotaped oral depositions and answer written “interrogatories.”
“Andrew will be forced to give evidence under oath” as part of that process, Boies said, adding, “He has no way of escaping that.”
Boies said that as many as 10 or 12 third parties could be deposed and that another potential target could be Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, although getting a deposition for her as a non-U.S. resident would be more complex than Meghan, as the British courts would have to approve the request.
Boies said, “We would likely take one or two depositions of people close to Andrew who would have knowledge of his actions. That might include his ex-wife. It could possibly be his brother.”
Asked if he might seek to depose Andrew’s mother, Boies said, “I don’t think, out of respect and deference, and her age, we would seek to depose the queen. I don’t think she is going to have any knowledge that other people don’t have. I think that he is unlikely to have spoken as freely to his mother about some of this stuff as he might have to his contemporaries, or his ex-wife.”
Boies said that Prince Harry’s wife, who is an American citizen living in the United States and therefore obligated to co-operate, “is one of the people we are considering” but cautioned that a firm decision had not yet been made.
“We wouldn’t take a lot of those depositions,” he said. “It would just be to see whether there are people close to [Andrew] who have relevant knowledge.”
Asked if Prince Harry might be a potential subject for deposition, Boies said, “He would also be available for deposition as he is in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts. But my guess is that we will probably only have the opportunity to take 10 to 12 depositions so we have got to be careful about who we notice. We would not depose both Harry and Meghan, because we would not have the number of depositions to do that.”
Boies emphasized that Markle is only “one of the people we are considering, we haven’t made a decision yet.”
Markle’s spokesperson has been contacted for comment.
