Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Prince Andrew will be able to look at a 2009 settlement agreement. He hopes it will protect him against a civil suit accusing him in 2009 of sexually abusing a young woman.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, Manhattan, granted Andrew permission to his lawyers to get a copy from the confidential agreement between Virginia Giuffre (the prince’s accuser) and Jeffrey Epstein (the late financier).

Giuffre also accuses Epstein of abuse.

Epstein’s estate agreed to let the Duke of York (Queen Elizabeth’s second-born son) review the agreement. Court approval was required.

The prince of 61 has never been accused of crimes and has denied Giuffres accusations against him.

Andrew Brettler was a prince’s lawyer and stated in an email that he expected to get the agreement from Giuffre’s lawyers soon.

Brettler stated that the settlement “absolves the client from all and any liability” at a hearing held last month.

Giuffre’s lawyers didn’t immediately reply to our requests for comment.

David Boies was one of the attorneys who stated in court last month that the settlement was irrelevant to Giuffre’s case against Andrew.

Giuffre, 38, accused https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/prince-andrew-is-sued-by-jeffrey-epstein-accuser-over-alleged-sexual-abuse-2021-08-09 the prince of forcing her to have sex when she was underage at the London home of Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Andrew, according to her, abused and raped her in Epstein’s Manhattan mansion as well as Epstein’s private island on the U.S Virgin Islands.

Andrew will have until October 29th to reply to Giuffre’s suit, which is seeking unspecified damages.

Epstein was a registered sex offenders and committed suicide in Manhattan in August 2019. He was awaiting his trial for sex trafficking.

Maxwell pleaded not guilty in the matter of Maxwell helping to groom and recruit underage girls to Epstein for abuse. Maxwell is due to stand trial in Manhattan on Nov. 29.