Prince Andrew's effort to immediately block the progression of a lawsuit by a woman who alleges he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 — on the grounds that she no longer lives in the US — was rejected by a US federal judge as oral arguments were set to proceed tomorrow on the prince's request to dismiss the lawsuit.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, in a written order Friday local time, told the prince's lawyers they must turn over documents on the schedule that has been set in the lawsuit brought in August by Virginia Giuffre.
Ms Giuffre says she was abused by the prince on multiple occasions in 2001 while she was being sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The prince's attorney, Andrew Brettler, has called the lawsuit "baseless."
The order was filed three days before the scheduled public release of a 2009 settlement agreement between Epstein, now dead, and Ms Giuffre.
Lawyers for Prince Andrew say that the agreement protects the royal from claims like those brought by Ms Giuffre and will be sufficient grounds for the lawsuit's dismissal.
The prince's lawyers had claimed that the evidence was so strong that Ms Giuffre does not reside in the US that it was pointless to exchange evidence until that question is resolved because it could result in the lawsuit's dismissal.
They argued that Ms Giuffre has lived in Australia all but two of the past 19 years, has an Australian driver's license and lives in Perth, where she has been raising three children with her husband, who is Australian.
In a statement, Ms Giuffre's attorney Sigrid McCawley called the request to halt the case "just another in a series of tired attempts by Prince Andrew to duck and dodge the legal merits of the case Virginia Giuffre has brought against him. All parties in litigation are subject to discovery and Prince Andrew is no exception."
Judge Kaplan, in a one-page order, noted that the prince's lawyers have requested that "extensive" materials be turned over by Ms Giuffre by January 14, including documents related to where she has lived.
And he said the prince's attorneys have not yet formally raised the defence that the lawsuit cannot proceed on the grounds that Ms Giuffre has been living in Australia rather than Colorado, where her lawyers say she is a resident.
In the cover page of a lawsuit in September 2015, Ms Giuffre listed her address as Penrose, Colorado. In the cover letter of an April 2019 lawsuit, she listed her address as Palm Cove, Australia, and marked a box as "citizen or subject of a foreign country."
But in her lawsuit against the prince, she listed her address as Ocean Reef, Western Australia, but checked a box that said "citizen of another state".
Judge Kaplan's order expressed no opinion on the merits of the prince's claims that Ms Giuffre should be disqualified from suing because she lives in Australia.
Oral arguments via a video teleconference on the prince's request to dismiss the case are scheduled for Monday morning.
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In October last year, the prince's lawyers attacked the lawsuit on multiple grounds, saying Ms Giuffre had made false claims against Andrew because he "never sexually abused or assaulted" her.
"Giuffre has initiated this baseless lawsuit against Prince Andrew to achieve another payday at his expense and at the expense of those closest to him. Epstein's abuse of Giuffre does not justify her public campaign against Prince Andrew," the written arguments said.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
His former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, was convicted last week of charges including sex trafficking and conspiracy after a month-long trial.
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