Giuffre’s Prince Andrew suit goes ahead despite Epstein deal

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has given the green light to a lawsuit by an American woman who says Prince Andrew sexually abused her when she was 17.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote in an opinion Wednesday that Andrew’s lawyers failed to successfully challenge the constitutionality of the lawsuit Virginia Giuffre filed against him in August. His lawyers had said that the lawsuit lacked specificity and was disqualified by a deal she reached in 2009 with lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein.

That settlement of a lawsuit was reached a decade before Epstein killed himself at a Manhattan lockup as he awaited a sex trafficking trial. Andrew denies the allegations.