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January 14, 2022 - 2:23pm
Yesterday Prince Andrew’s military titles and royal patronages were returned to the Queen, and he will stop using the style His Royal Highness in an official capacity. Citizen Andrew, who retains the title of Prince, is now preparing to fight a sexual assault civil lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre.
Giuffre, introduced to the Prince in 2001 when she was 17, alleges that Andrew had unwanted sex with her on three occasions. First on the night they met in London, then at millionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and on Epstein’s private island in Little St. John.
Andrew has denied ever meeting or having sex with Giuffre.
Speculation about Andrew’s friendship with Epstein usually boils down to two factors: women and money. Jeffrey Epstein’s world was full of both. According to Vicky Ward, who has covered Epstein for decades, it was the financier’s riches that caught Andrew in his web. On her Substack she reports:
Andrew never lived as grandly as his old titles suggested. His money troubles were legion, and he often had to ask friends to help him out. There was a $30,000 gold and diamond necklace given to his daughter Beatrice in 2009 by a convicted Libyan gun smuggler and a $2 million bank loan reportedly paid off by businessman David Rowland, among other controversial financial dealings.
One deal involved Jeffrey Epstein. In December 2010 Sarah Ferguson — who lived with Andrew at the time — was given £15,000 by Epstein to pay off her debts, just 18 months after he was released from jail for soliciting prostitution from underage girls. Later, the Duchess said her judgement was “clouded” by her desperation to get out of her debts. She told the Evening Standard: “I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me.”
But the Andrew-Epstein relationship also worked both ways. Epstein’s former business partner, Steve Hoffenberg, told Vanity Fair, that Prince Andrew was the financier’s “Super Bowl Trophy” and a “business convoy for money”.
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SubscribeWould a legal wizzbang explain to me why Andrew should worry about a civil case in an America kangaroo court. Can’t he just ignore it? His reputation in this country has been trashed, why should he care what Americans think?
PS: No offence to Americans intended
None taken: Andy has 3 choices, all bad: 1. fight the case, which means that TONS of personal stuff will be made public. 2. Ignore the case, which means that he will lose (duh) the girl will get a judgment against him, and then they will go after his assets, which are likely linked in some fashion to the Queen. Andy will also effectively forced to say in the UK or have assets seized. 3. Settle the case, which will mean a big payout, perhaps some other concessions or admissions that he will find difficult to make, and the terms will likely be made public at some point.
As an American lawyer, I think I would advise him to go with Option 2–ignore the case. This is a bad strategy, but perhaps the least worst. Clinton would have been wise to do this when sued by Paula Jones. He didn’t, and the rest is history.
This is the crux of my question: How can her lawyers go after his assets if those assets are not in the US? Surely he can travel the rest of the world with impunity.
Think of the Ginger Moron as a gift. But if you don’t want him then send him back (though Ms Malarkey is your problem).
What a laughing stock the UK is! Other European countries have royals, but can anyone imagine the Dutch Royal Family behaving this way? The Swedish Royal Family? OK, the King of Sweden had some issues about a club he may have patronized in Bratislava, but the personal sphere is still rather private in Sweden even for the King, so he had a TV speech, denied everything, apologized, and although his denials were obviously not completely credible, it was done and dusted.
Once Queenie dies–can you just send them off? Maybe Australia–that would be a nice, ironic twist! And please, please, PLEASE take MM with you!
But Sweden and I suspect most other royal families (Spain may be an exception) have something close to zero tolerance for financial scamming.
Citizen Andrew was and is a grifter, pure and simple. To the manor born, he was a grifter at a quite high level, but still a grifter. Perhaps now he continue his grifting ways, doing questionable things to make some quick cash.
Will Citizen Andrew do a porn movie, and the big question is not whether many people would watch and pay for it, the big question is whether or not he would sweat under hot stage lights? Come to think of it, this could be a piece of evidence at his trial….
Please don’t forget Monaco royals and who can forget Prince ? that Caroline married, seen publicly urinating at some important expo – I don’t think this was an isolated event!
Excellent point. I apologise unreservedly for the omission. Thanks for pointing this out!
Methinks that you are wasting too much precious brain power on this man. The monarchy may or may not survive, but Andrew will not affect the decision.
Perhaps you are right. The UnHerd crowd seems to have passed on this one. As a Yank, it’s a bit like an accident–you must slow down at least to watch. As an attorney, the Emily Maitlis interview–roughly comparable to a deposition–was extremely instructive. She was epic, but inexplicably, Andy thought he had done well!
As you are a self-confessed American why do you care? After all I don’t care who you elect as your President.
I care because I enjoy the theatre of the absurd as much as the next non-menstruating person. I also hope that Andy, perhaps in concert with MM, will finally end the monarchy, which I view as a good thing. I also care because you have that filthy ginger moron and his extremely woke wife living in the US and committing crimes. While the ginger child is guilty of being stupid, MM is likely to actually be committing real crimes–such as lobbying American officials as an unregistered agent of a foreign power. Please, take this vile, stupid, filthy creature back to the UK. Lock her in a tower if you must, but get her out of the US.
With respect, you should care about the American president because sadly, this sets the tone for much of the free world. To have a demented, doddering dotard as the so-called leader of the free world is not a good thing.
I still don’t understand why you are upset about the UK having a monarchy. Surely it is our business and doesn’t really affect you. We tend to look at our Queen and your Presidents and thank our lucky stars. I would even accept Charles in preference to any American President who has held office during my (long) lifetime.
To be clear, I don’t care that much, but when UnHerd puts something up, I can’t stop myself. A bit of Schadenfreude perhaps.
To your comment below about MM, with respect, I disagree. I believe that MM has forfeited her American citizenship by becoming a member of “the firm.” I have implored UnHerd to do a piece on her citizenship and that of her spawn–if anyone has any juice (or interest) in this matter, please encourage UnHerd–I’m amazed it hasn’t been done. Yet.
Re the seizure of assets, this was not my area of legal expertise but to the extent that ANY of Andy’s assets–or assets that he may have an interest in are outside the UK–or even inside in some circumstances–they are fair game. The firm’s assets will be exposed to public scrutiny, as they will when the ginger moron must file US taxes, which hopefully will bring down the monarchy. Bye, Queenie!
I gave you the benefit of the doubt. My mistake.
“Once Queenie dies–can you just send them off?”
How utterly disrespectful it is for some shallow person to be rude about the Institution of the British Monarchy.
Have you ever really lived outside your country? Do you know anything other than strip malls, American TV, and the USA MSM news which ignores the world?
Sneering and sarcasm, how poor a look that is, well done, welcome to the Title of ‘Ugly American’.
Fair play. Sorry I did not meet your standards. I am proud, however, to be “utterly disrespectful,” shallow and rude to an institution that has long outlived its usefulness.
The Commonwealth? The woke Queen! The only time the Queen seems to have violated her oath of neutrality was to attack the Iron Lady over some principle of wokeness, if memory serves.
And I do live outside the US in a Baltic capital, where I am leading the FAF (“Free American Forces”) think London during the war, but will return to the US to lead from the front when the shooting starts in the coming Civil War.
Lock and load!