Prince Andrew, Duke of York leaves the headquarters of Crossrail at Canary Wharf on March 7, 2011 in London, England. Prince Andrew is under increasing pressure after a series of damaging revelations about him surfaced, including criticism over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier.
Dan Kitwood | Getty Images
A new attorney for Prince Andrew of Britain on Monday said he will challenge a lawsuit against him by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s many accusers on the grounds of jurisdiction and an argument the court action has not been legally served on the prince.
The lawyer, Andrew Brettler of Los Angeles, flagged his intention to make those arguments in a document filed hours before a hearing in New York court for the suit filed last month by Virginia Giuffre.
No other lawyer had previously filed an appearance on Prince Andrew’s behalf, much less responded in a court filing to Giuffre’s lawsuit.
Giuffre claims the Duke of York sexually abused her two decades ago in New York, London and in the U.S. Virgin Islands when she was underage, and in the clutches of the prince’s friend Epstein and Epstein’s accused procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Giuffre “was regularly abused by Epstein and was lent out by Epstein to other powerful men for sexual purposes,” her suit alleges.
Giuffre’s suit says that she was “was also forced to have sex with Defendant, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, at [Epstein’s] and Maxwell’s direction.”
Prince Andrew has denied Giuffre’s allegations and claims he has no memory of even meeting her, despite the existence of a photograph that appears to show them smiling and standing next to each other as Maxwell broadly beams in the background.
Guiffre’s lawyers last week said that her Manhattan federal court lawsuit was legally served on Prince Andrew on Aug. 27 by a process server who left a copy of her claim with a police officer guarding a royal residence in England, where the prince had been staying.
Prince Andrew, who is the son of Queen Elizabeth, reportedly had been actively avoiding getting served with the suit.
Brettler, in his filing in Manhattan court, wrote that he entered “this special appearance on behalf of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, in the above-captioned proceeding, for the purpose of contesting purported service of process and challenging jurisdiction.”
The filing did not elaborate on those arguments.
Brettler did not immediately return a request for comment.
Epstein, a former friend of ex-Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, died from what has officially been ruled a suicide by hanging in 2019 while being held in a Manhattan federal jail pending trial on child sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell is due to go on trial in Manhattan federal court in November on charges that she recruited underage girls to be abused by Epstein.
She has pleaded not guilty in that case. Maxwell is being held without bond in a Brooklyn jail.
