LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II will mark 70 years on the throne in February, a milestone unmatched by any British sovereign and an opportunity to show the web page on three years of ceaseless turmoil within the royal household. However a sexual-abuse lawsuit unfolding in a Manhattan courtroom might but spoil her celebration.
On Tuesday, legal professionals for the queen’s second son, Prince Andrew, requested a federal decide to throw out a lawsuit by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, by which she claims that Andrew, a good friend of the late financier and convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, raped her when she was 17.
It was the newest in a skein of authorized maneuvers by the prince’s legal professionals to defuse Ms. Giuffre’s case. Whereas the decide, Lewis A. Kaplan, didn’t instantly rule on the movement, leaving Andrew’s authorized destiny unsettled for now, the listening to dramatized the shadow that the 61-year-old prince nonetheless casts over his household.
If the decide permits the case to go ahead, Andrew might face damaging testimony from Ms. Giuffre about his alleged abuse of her at Mr. Epstein’s residences in New York and within the Caribbean. That will plunge the Home of Windsor again into scandal on the very second it hopes to make use of the Platinum Jubilee to remind Britons of the queen’s extraordinary longevity and largely blemish-free report of service.
The 70-minute listening to gave a glimpse into the sorts of points that might spill out in a chronic trial. At one level, Prince Andrew’s lead lawyer, Andrew B. Brettler, argued that Ms. Giuffre had not been particular in her allegations in opposition to him. Decide Kaplan replied that she claimed she had been subjected to “involuntary sexual activity” and requested what was not clear about that.
“If the case drags on and on and on, sure, it is going to be a thorn within the aspect of the Platinum Jubilee,” mentioned Dickie Arbiter, who served as a press secretary to the queen from 1988 to 2000. Past the fraught points raised in that case, he mentioned, had been the lingering questions stirred by the rift between the household and Prince Harry and his American-born spouse, Meghan.
Perceive the Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
After days of deliberation, a jury discovered Ms. Maxwell responsible of all however one cost within the intercourse trafficking case in opposition to her.
Harry, the queen’s grandson, plans to publish a memoir late in 2022, which has unsettled individuals across the royal household who concern additional unflattering particulars about what the estranged prince and Meghan have claimed was callous and racist therapy by the hands of members of the royal household.
Andrew’s woes, in contrast, are largely of his personal making, royal watchers level out, the product of his affiliation with the disgraced Mr. Epstein and one other good friend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted final week of conspiring with Mr. Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse underage women. Ms. Giuffre contends that she was amongst these victims; Andrew denies her declare that she was trafficked to him.
The queen has already largely banished Andrew from public life, a course of that gained momentum after a calamitous interview he gave the BBC in November 2019, by which he tried to elucidate his friendship with Mr. Epstein and denied the allegations of sexual misconduct, saying he had no reminiscence of assembly Ms. Giuffre. He not seems at public occasions, and even army ceremonies, and the British media’s protection of him is uniformly scathing.
When photographers seize Andrew’s picture — usually on the wheel of a automobile coming or going to go to his mom — he seems a graying, weary shadow of the once-dashing helicopter pilot who beguiled the nation together with his service within the Falklands Struggle and his busy bachelorhood.
“My intestine feeling is that most individuals have misplaced curiosity in him,” mentioned Penny Junor, a royal historian. “He’s conceited and never significantly in style. Since he’s gone previous center age, there’s been a basic sense of ‘what’s he for?’”
In a single respect, nonetheless, Andrew might stay a lingering drawback, Ms. Junor mentioned. The queen has not stripped him of his honorary army titles, a few of which he inherited from his father, Prince Philip, who died final 12 months. That has prompted objections from veterans, who say it’s unseemly to be below the command of an individual going through such allegations.
Julian Perreira, a former sergeant within the Grenadier Guards who served in Afghanistan, advised The Instances of London final week, “Being allowed to retain his position as colonel of the Grenadier Guards and different army titles, Prince Andrew will put a stain on the regiment’s proud historical past and can devalue the arduous work of previous and future generations of Grenadiers. He should step down instantly.”
Prince Harry was stripped of his honorary army titles — in addition to the suitable to make use of the honorific His Royal Highness — after he and Meghan stepped again from official duties and moved to Southern California.
For Andrew to retain his titles, even whereas being accused of sexual misconduct, strikes some in Britain as the last word illustration of a double customary for privileged members of the royal household. It could be all however unattainable to defend if he’s discovered responsible of abusing an underage woman.
Andrew’s status, critics say, has not been helped by his authorized maneuvering. Moderately than confronting the allegations instantly, the prince scrambled to keep away from being served with authorized papers in Britain. His legal professionals have tried to get the case dismissed on jurisdictional grounds and, most just lately, on the idea of a settlement settlement between Ms. Giuffre and Mr. Epstein.
Beneath the phrases of that 2009 settlement, unsealed on Monday, Mr. Epstein paid Ms. Giuffre $500,000 to resolve a lawsuit by which she accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a youngster. Mr. Giuffre, in flip, agreed to launch Mr. Epstein and different “potential defendants” from additional litigation, a class that Andrew’s legal professionals mentioned included him.
However Ms. Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, argued in court docket that Andrew was not a goal of the allegations of sexual trafficking made by Ms. Giuffre in 2009. Therefore, he’s not protected below the phrases of the settlement. “He was somebody to whom the women had been trafficked,” Mr. Boies advised the decide. “He’s not a possible defendant.”
Whereas Decide Kaplan didn’t point out how he was leaning in whether or not to dismiss the case, he pointedly allowed the method of gathering proof to proceed. That can hold the authorized stress on Andrew. And it’ll make for a tense begin to the Platinum Jubilee 12 months for the queen, who has already been combating well being issues which have saved her out of public view since October.
The queen, royal watchers be aware, has been steadfast in her affection for Andrew, whilst his public status has withered. Having gone together with sidelining her son — a step that was pushed by her eldest son and inheritor, Prince Charles — some doubt that she would strip Andrew of his titles.
“The queen offers and the queen takes away, however she’d in all probability be reluctant to take this away as a result of that’s all he obtained left,” Mr. Arbiter mentioned. “She is the top of state and head of the nation, however on the finish of the day, she’s additionally his mom.”