Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer used Buckingham Palace’s defence of Prince Andrew in court, new documents have revealed.
A new batch of unsealed legal papers, which include around 300 pages, and are linked to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and connected to the 2015 defamation case brought by Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell, were released late on Thursday.
In these papers, it emerges that the attorney of disgraced British socialite Maxwell mentioned the Palace’s defence of Andrew in a bid to get the defamation complaint dismissed.
In 2015, Buckingham Palace issued a statement in which it “emphatically denied” Andrew had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Ms Giuffre. It branded the allegations “false and without foundation”.
Laura Menninger said Ms Giuffre filed a motion claiming “to have been involved in sexual relations with Prince Andrew, with world leaders, a former prime minister of some country or other, (American lawyer) Mr Alan Dershowitz.”
But Ms Menninger added: “The press comes calling and asked my client and Mr Dershowitz and Prince Andrew and everyone else whether any of the allegations contained in this legal pleading are true.
“Buckingham Palace issued a statement flatly denying the claims made by plaintiff here.”
The lawyer later noted “Buckingham Palace said her claims were absolutely untrue” and added that “while others have called her a liar, notably Mr Dershowitz and others have denied claims that plaintiff has made, including Buckingham Palace … Ms Maxwell has not actually ever called her a liar”.
A day earlier, in the first batch of some 1,000 pages released, Andrew was, in allegations aired previously and which he strenuously denies, accused of having an orgy with underage girls, and touching a woman’s breast while posing with a puppet of himself.
