Prince Andrew Wants Sexual Assault Case Dismissed After Epstein’s $500K Settlement Is Released

Prince Andrew's lawyers have asked a judge to dismiss a civil sexual assault lawsuit against the royal after a court document unsealed Monday revealed that his accuser accepted a $500,000 settlement from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2009 and agreed she wouldn't sue him or any other "potential defendant."

Virginia Roberts Giuffre agreed to "release, acquit, satisfy and forever discharge" Epstein and "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant" after accepting the settlement, People reported, citing the 2009 document, which does not name Prince Andrew.

Lawyers for the Duke of York, 61, argued that the deal between his accuser and Epstein should bar Giuffre from suing Prince Andrew.

However, Giuffre's attorneys said that the terms of the Florida settlement are irrelevant to her ongoing case against Queen Elizabeth's son.

"He could not have been a 'potential defendant' in the settled case against Jeffrey Epstein both because he was not subject to jurisdiction in Florida and because the Florida case involved federal claims to which he was not a part," Giuffre's lead lawyer, David Boies, said in the statement obtained by USA Today. "The actual parties to the release have made clear that Prince Andrew was not covered by it."

The civil case's court hearing in New York, presided by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, began Tuesday morning.

The judge wrapped up the teleconference hearing after hearing arguments from both sides and said he would have his decision on whether to dismiss the case "pretty soon."

Giuffre filed the sexual assault lawsuit against Prince Andrew last summer, alleging that she was forced to have sex with him three times between 1999 and 2002 in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein. The royal has denied the allegations.

Last month, Prince Andrew's lawyers also challenged Giuffre's residency status in a bid to have her case against him thrown out of court.

The prince's attorneys argued that she is not a U.S. citizen and thus the New York court does not have jurisdiction over her civil case against him. They called for the case to be stopped because his accuser is "actually domiciled in Australia," The Guardian reported, citing court documents.

Prince Andrew's lawyer Andrew Brettler wrote in documents that though Giuffre said in her complaint that she is a citizen of Colorado, "evidence" revealed that she has lived in Australia for all but two of the last 19 years.

Federal court rules do not allow both parties involved in a case to be foreign citizens.

In response, Giuffre's lawyer Sigrid McCawley said in a statement to Rolling Stone that this was "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."