(PresidentialInsider.com)- Following the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, lawyers for Prince Andrew Duke of York held an emergency meeting where they discussed the testimony of one of Maxwell’s victims which they believe lends credence to their motion to dismiss Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against the Duke.
The witness, known in court as “Carolyn,” testified that it was not Ghislaine Maxwell who recruited her, but Virginia Giuffre. The Duke’s lawyers are now mulling the possibility of calling Carolyn to testify for the defense to show Giuffre was directly involved in bringing Jeffrey Epstein girls to abuse.
A legal source told the UK Mirror Prince Andrew’s attorneys immediately seized on Carolyn’s testimony in the Maxwell case, believing she holds a “smoking gun” in Giuffre’s role in “Epstein’s pyramid scheme of abuse.”
The source told the Mirror that Prince Andrew’s US legal team has convinced him if he hopes to prevent Giuffre’s lawsuit from going to court, nothing should be off-limits. The lawyers believe Carolyn’s evidence could seriously “if not fatally” weaken Giuffre’s case.
Carolyn was the third accuser to testify against Maxwell, describing the sexualized massages Maxwell had her give Epstein when she was only 14. But during her testimony, Carolyn said she met Virginia Giuffre through Carolyn’s then-boyfriend and it was Giuffre who subsequently introduced her to Epstein and Maxwell at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion in the early 2000s.
In her lawsuit, Virginia Giuffre claims she was trafficked to Prince Andrew on three separate occasions by Jeffrey Epstein starting when she was seventeen.
Prince Andrew, a close friend of Ghislaine Maxwell, has consistently and vehemently denied Giuffre’s allegations.
The Duke’s US lawyer Andrew Brettler is hoping to turn the tables on Giuffre by arguing that Carolyn’s testimony confirms that Giuffre was a willing participant in the “recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse.”
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan is scheduled to hear arguments on the defense’s motion to dismiss in a New York court on January 4 If the case moves forward, Prince Andrew will face trial sometime in the fall.
