The verdict is in… and it’ s not looking good for Prince Andrew .
As you probably heard, Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on four charges on Wednesday in relation to her role in the sex trafficking operation of Jeffrey Epstein . It’ s probably the closest we’ ll ever come to a guilty verdict for the infamous billionaire pedophile himself — but it hopefully is just the beginning of justice for his many victims.
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That will seems to be what Andrew’ s legal team fears as they were, according to a report in The Mirror , “ locked in emergency talks” all night after the verdict, which could put Maxwell in prison for up to 65 years.
See, the particular Duke of York is currently being sued by one of Epstein’ s accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre , who has long alleged that she had sex with the Royal at the command of his infamous pal — once when she has been just 17 years old within Ghislaine’ s London home.
The legal team is reportedly freaking out because, as you may know, the burden of proof is less demanding in a civil trial than a criminal one. Instead associated with proof beyond a reasonable doubt , they require just the preponderance of evidence . Think O. J. Simpson getting acquitted but then having to pay in the civil trial anyway.
Not only that, there’ s typically the possibility that Ghislaine may finally name names now that she’ s been found guilty. After all, she’ s looking down the barrel of a possible 65 years in prison, effectively the rest of her life. Would she flip on folks involved inside the trafficking to get a new reduced sentence? There are plenty. She and Epstein didn’ t traffic these girls to no one . If we were Andrew we’ d be sweating bullets. Well, not if we had been Andrew, we guess, since he says he was unable in order to sweat. LOLz!
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Surprisingly, however, his lawyers actually think they’ ve found their defense within the evidence given against Maxwell in this trial.
One of the accusers, known during the trial because “ Carolyn” , said something the lawyers think might be “ disastrous” for the case against Andrew. Carolyn testified that it was Virginia who recruited her into the sex trafficking operation. The team think that will fact leaves the accuser’ h legal case “ seriously, if not fatally, weakened. ” A lawful source told the outlet:
“ Andrew’ s US team immediately seized upon Carolyn’ s testimony. They believe she holds a smoking gun to any possible role Virginia played throughout Epstein’ s pyramid scheme regarding abuse. Andrew’ s lawyers have convinced him that if he is to stand any chance involving preventing her case from going to court, they need to fight along with fire and that nothing should be off-limits. ”
In other words, blame often the victim. Turn it around on her, claim she was a criminal your whole time and NOT actually ever a victim of Epstein, Maxwell, and Prince Andrew.
Maybe they’ re right. Maybe that will change how a jury sees Giuffre. However, they may realize that sometimes around cases like these part connected with being a victim is being turned into part of the system. And that she was still a teenager, and he was nevertheless a grown man, who was besties with the people at the exact top of an underage sex trafficking ring.
We guess we’ ll have to be able to see how things pan away, but we can tell you this — we don’ to like Andrew’ s chances if he has to get on the very stand. But we admit we’ re keen to hear any kind of new excuses he comes up!
[Image via BBC/WENN.]
The post Prince Andrew' s Lawyers In ' Emergency Talks' After Pal Ghislaine Maxwell Guilty Verdict — Is There A ' Smoking Gun'?? appeared first on Perez Hilton .
