- Meghan Markle could testify in the Prince Andrew lawsuit brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
- A lawyer representing Roberts Giuffre told The Daily Beast Markle may have "important knowledge."
- David Boies said the US has jurisdiction over her and she was close to Andrew for a period of time.
A lawyer representing Virginia Roberts Giuffre in her lawsuit alleging Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her says Meghan Markle could be called to testify in the suit, The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday.
Speaking to the publication's royalist correspondent Tom Sykes, lawyer David Boies said Markle may have picked up "important knowledge" during her time as a working royal, that can be used in Roberts Giuffre's civil suit.
Boies, who did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, told The Daily Beast that the reasons for Markle's potential deposition are three-fold. "One; she is in the US so we have jurisdiction over her," he said.
"Two; she is somebody who obviously, at least for a period of time, was a close associate of Prince Andrew, and hence is in a position to perhaps have seen what he did, and perhaps if not to have seen what he did, to have heard people talk about it," added Boies.
He said that Markle could have "important knowledge" pertaining to the allegations because of that, and thirdly, "she is somebody who we can count on to tell the truth."
Andrew has said he regrets his association with the convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged with child sex trafficking in July 2019 and died by apparent suicide in prison in August that year, Insider previously reported.
The report noted that in August 2021, Giuffre filed a lawsuit that claimed that Andrew sexually assaulted her on three occasions in Epstein's home in 2001, when she was 17 years old.
The prince has denied the allegations and in September, his lawyer Anthony Brettler described the lawsuit as "baseless, non-viable, and possibly unlawful" during a virtual hearing with presiding Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.
According to a memo filed on December 14 to the Southern District of New York, lawyers for Andrew said that Roberts Giuffre was not underage according to New York law, The Times of London reported.
They argued that the Child Victims Act, the legislation under which he is being sued, is flawed because it classifies those under the age of 18 as minors, but the age of consent in New York is 17.
The Times reported that Andrew's legal team, headed by Andrew Brettler, said that it would be possible to prove lack of consent by evidencing an "implied threat" from the royal, but that it would be difficult to do so because "as memories fade, false memories are created, and witnesses die or otherwise become unavailable."
Andrew's lawyers further described the suit as "all too convenient," arguing that Roberts Giuffre signed away her right to sue him after she settled a lawsuit with Epstein in 2009. The Times added that Kaplan agreed to delay the hearing to January 14.
Representatives for Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.