Questions about the trial that threatens to overwhelm the Windsors: a diplomatic case with the USA
“Shame on those who think badly”, honi be it who badly thinks about it, reads the inscription on the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, but the grungy personal stories of the Windsor recent generations make the motto of the chivalrous Order of the Garter sadly obsolete. Among other things, since it rains in the wet even in noble palaces, fate proves to have a sense of humor that is perhaps not very English but certainly very cruel: American law which has just allowed Virginia Giuffre, 38, to sue Prince Andrew of England who allegedly abused her twenty-one years ago, when she was a minor, was strongly supported by the governor of New York Andrew Cuomo recently resigned to avoid impeachment and at risk of criminal prosecution for sexual harassment (the New York State Child Victims Act was converted into law by Cuomo two years ago and effectively extends the limitation limits to allow survivors of sexual abuse when they were minors to sue even after decades).
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Andrea, 61 years old, he got in trouble two years ago for his friendship with the American billionaire (who later died in prison apparently suicidal) Jeffrey Epstein, and after Giuffre’s accusations he had released a disastrous interview in which he said he did not remember his accuser (there are photographs that portray them together). Then the scandal had entered a phase of relative media quiet, but as we saw yesterday Giuffre’s lawyers had never stopped working, and now they claim that the prince and his representatives have in recent years rejected numerous requests to provide “Facts, explanations, and possible alternative ways to resolve the dispute”.
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It is obvious that Andrea could never, for obvious reasons, accept a hypothetical out-of-court settlement, that is, a transaction that in exchange for money he would get the end of the civil proceedings but it would appear, beyond the technicalities, an admission of guilt politically unsustainable for him and for the monarchy.
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Andrea left all official positions in 2019 effectively retiring to private life, retired before the age of 60: a sensational choice in itself since his father Philip, who passed away three months ago at the age of 99, was called out of state commitments only at 97 and a half. But now he ends up entangled in a very complicated lawsuit that humiliates the Windsors once again but excites American law experts: two years ago, in London, we wondered whether Andrea could count on diplomatic immunity or not (the question is thorny, the answer is not certain but it is more yes than no, and if the Americans wanted to indict him one day, an unprecedented diplomatic case would open). And a civil suit in a New York court opens up more questions. Can Andrea just ignore the process? Staying in the UK without ever showing up in the classroom in New York? And if he went to the United States would he still have the status of diplomat with attached immunity (the heads of state have it but he is now very far from the Queen’s line of succession that passes from Charles to William to William’s children)?
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Certainly the adventures of the British royals like that well narrated by the serial “The Crown” are rapidly approaching the sad cases of another show, this time American, the detective Law & Order perhaps in the “Special Victims Unit” sub-series which focuses on cases of sexual offenses. Giuffre’s lawyer is David Boies, a veteran of sensational cases with varied clients from Al Gore to cigarette manufacturers, Harvey Weinstein, the Department of Justice in the epochal antitrust case in 2001, in short, a little bit of everything. As always when it comes to British royalty, the global media echo does not help Andrea prophetically nicknamed “Randy Andy”, Andy the well-dressed, from the tabloids of the ’80s, before Facebook and Twitter, when the “invisible contract” between realities and media was still in force, the barter between tips on superficial issues and silence on really hot topics, a wicked pact now shattered about which Harry spoke , another “spare” prince who did not finish very well.
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August 10, 2021 (change August 10, 2021 | 23:36)
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