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- Prince Andrew asked a judge to dismiss a sexual assault civil case against him by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
- His attorneys said that Giuffre recruited underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein and that she profits off of false allegations.
- Attempts to paint Giuffre as a predator motivated by greed marks a turning point in Prince Andrew's legal strategy.
Prince Andrew's attorneys have sought to portray Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre as a predator motivated by greed, which marks a turning point in Prince Andrew's legal strategy, court filings show.
In a legal memorandum filed with a New York court on Friday, the allegations were made by lawyers to convince a US judge to dismiss the sexual assault civil case against the British royal by Giuffre.
Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in August, accusing him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.
Florida Southern District Court
Prince Andrew's attorneys wrote that despite "lurid allegations" against the prince, Giuffre herself was involved in the "the willful recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse."
In a section entitled 'Giuffre's role in Epstein's criminal enterprise,' The document quotes Crystal Figueroa, the sister of Giuffre's former boyfriend, who told the New York Daily News that Giuffre recruited underage girls for Epstein.
"She [Giuffre] would say to me, 'Do you know any girls who are kind of slutty?'" Figueroa said, according to the court filing.
The documents also quote Philip Guderyon, who used to date Giuffre, and reportedly said that she appeared to be "head b***h" at Epstein's mansion.
In the filing Prince Andrew's attorneys also suggested that Giuffre was making false allegations of sexual abuse about high-profile individuals in order to profit off of the publicity.
They said that Giuffre earned large sums of money by selling stories and photographs to the press and making agreements with her alleged abusers.
They pointed to the fact Giuffre sold an exclusive interview and photograph of her with Prince Andrew to the Daily Mail for $160,000, and that she made millions of dollars in a settlement reached with Ghislaine Maxwell over defamation allegations.
"Most people could only dream of obtaining the sums of money that Giuffre has secured for herself over the years," the lawyers wrote.
They further suggested that Giuffre's various lawsuits against high-profile individuals were burdening the courts and preventing action against real predators.
"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," they wrote.
The attempts to paint Giuffre as a predator motivated by greed marks a turning point in Prince Andrew's legal strategy.
Giuffre has accused the prince of "rape in the first degree" and sexual assault on three occasions and is seeking "punitive damages" against the royal.
She has said the assaults took place in 2001 in London, New York and on Epstein's private island.
Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied the claims.
Giuffre has also said she suffered repeated abuse at the hands of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"Virginia Giuffre may well be a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein [...] and nothing can excuse, nor fully capture, the abhorrence and gravity of Epstein's monstrous behavior against Giuffre, if so," the royal's attorneys wrote in the court filing.
"However, and without diminishing the harm suffered as a result of Epstein's alleged misconduct, Prince Andrew never sexually abused or assaulted Giuffre."
Giuffre's lawyer, Sigrid McCawley claimed yesterday, according to The Times: "If Virginia Giuffre had stood silent in the face of outrageous statements like those Prince Andrew routinely churns out - his motion to dismiss the litigation being no exception - the decades-long sex-trafficking ring his friend Jeffrey Epstein operated and he participated in would have never been exposed.
"On the subject of money, let's be clear: the only party to this litigation using money to his benefit is Prince Andrew."