Queen Elizabeth II strips son Prince Andrew of military ties amid Jeffrey Epstein accuser’s lawsuit

The New York Daily News - 1/18/2022

Prince Andrew was taken to the royal woodshed by his mother.

In a terse two-sentence statement Thursday, Queen Elizabeth announced her son was stripped of his military ties and royal patronages as he faces an ongoing civil lawsuit in Manhattan alleging he sexually abused an underage girl linked to his disgraced pal and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The stunning declaration came one day after Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled the accuser’s sex abuse case against the 61-year-old British royal will be allowed to proceed.

“With the Queen’s approval and agreement, the Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen,” read the Buckingham Palace statement. “The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a public citizen.”

In addition, according to a Reuters report, Andrew was banned from using the term “His Royal Highness” in any capacity.

Accuser Virginia Giuffre alleged in court papers that she was directed by Epstein to have sex with the prince on three occasions in the early 2000s when she was just 17.

Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner in perversion, was just convicted in the same courthouse for procuring other underage girls who were sexually abused by Epstein — the globe-trotting multimillionaire who committed suicide in his jail cell before facing trial.

Giuffre alleged some of the abuse occurred inside Maxwell’s London townhouse.

An infamous photo captured Andrew with his arm around a young Giuffre at the residence, with Maxwell smiling in the background.

Andrew’s lawyers insist the British royal never sexually abused or assaulted the teen and “unequivocally denies Giuffre’s false allegations against him.”

But Kaplan ruled Wednesday that Giuffre’s suit against Andrew will be allowed to go forward.

Giuffre’s complaint “alleged discrete incidents of sexual abuse in particular circumstances at three identifiable locations. It identifies to whom it attributes the sexual abuse,” the judge said.

In an interview with the BBC Wednesday, Giuffre’s attorney David Boies said he believed there was a strong chance the civil case would go to trial. He said his client was not motivated by money.

“I think it’s very important to Virginia Giuffre that this matter be resolved in a way that vindicates her and vindicates the other victims,” said Boies. “A purely financial settlement is not anything that I think she would be interested in.”

The next step in the lawsuit is evidence gathering.

Giuffre has demanded medical proof that Andrew cannot sweat, among other documentation. The request relates to a bizarre alibi Andrew offered during a disastrous 2019 BBC interview when confronted with questions related to Giuffre’s detailed description that he sweated all over her while dancing at a nightclub in March 2001.

“I have a peculiar medical condition, which is that I don’t sweat — or I didn’t sweat at the time ... because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when I was shot at,” Andrew said in the interview, in which he denied ever meeting Giuffre.

“And I simply — it was, it was almost impossible for me to sweat.”