A lawyer for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims says Prince Andrew should be ‘quaking in his boots’ over Ghislaine Maxwell’s guilty verdict.
Los Angeles attorney Lisa Bloom, who represented eight victims of the billionaire pedophile, said the conviction of Epstein’s madame for sex trafficking brought her and her clients to tears, and brings the Queen’s favorite son one step closer to facing a jury over claims he had sex with a 17-year-old girl trafficked by Maxwell.
Maxwell (60) was found guilty on five out of six charges of Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors. He now faces a maximum prison sentence of 65 years.
Hot on the heels of the verdict comes a hearing on January 4 to decide whether to throw out Andrew’s accuser Virginia Giuffre’s civil lawsuit over the Prince’s argument that she lives in Australia and cannot justify her claim to be a Colorado resident.
Los Angeles attorney Lisa Bloom (left) said the conviction of Epstein’s madame for sex trafficking brought Prince Andrew (right) one step closer to facing a jury over claims he had sex with a 17-year-old girl trafficked by Maxwell
Prince Andrew Roberts (17 years) and Virginia Roberts (17 years), at GhislaineMaxwell’s London Townhouse, Britain, March 13, 2001
Jeffrey Epstein’s Jeffrey Maxwell associate sits while the guilty verdict of her sex-abuse trial in New York City is read.
The case may be heard by a juror in fall 2022 if the judge side with Giuffre.
Bloom said in the wake of Maxwell’s conviction, she believes the prince’s technical objections ‘aren’t going to fly’.
‘He should be quaking in his boots,’ the Epstein victims’ attorney told DailyMail.com. ‘Because this shows that a jury is willing to come back with a guilty verdict even if the accusers are not perfect, as no human being is.
‘Even if there were grounds for cross-examination, which there were, they looked to the essence of the story and they found that Ghislaine Maxwell was guilty of sex trafficking.’
Bloom said that if the case goes to trial Andrew’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, is likely to try to trip up Giuffre by pointing out inconsistencies in her testimony – but the tactic would now be ineffective with a jury.
‘I think in his case he’s hoping that his lawyers can cross-examine Virginia and get her on some prior statements that she’s made and mistakes that she’s made. And I just don’t think that’s going to fly. I think he should be very concerned,’ she said.
The lawyer added that Wednesday’s verdict now makes Prince Andrew a self-confessed close friend of a child sex trafficker – after admitting his friendship with Maxwell in a car-crash interview with BBC journalist Emily Maitliss.
![Giuffre, who also accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, said on Twitter that today the jury of six men and six women who found the British socialite guilty had given her the 'justice [her] soul had yearned for years.'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/12/30/03/52352365-10354629-Giuffre_who_also_accused_Prince_Andrew_of_sexual_assault_said_on-a-42_1640834418176.jpg)
Hot on the heels of the verdict comes a hearing on January 4 to decide whether to throw out Andrew’s accuser Virginia Giuffre’s (left) civil lawsuit over the Prince’s argument that she lives in Australia and cannot justify her claim to be a Colorado resident. A judge could side with Giuffre and the case will be before a jury by fall 2022. Bloom (right) said in the wake of Maxwell’s conviction, she believes the prince’s technical objections ‘aren’t going to fly’
Virginia Giuffre was perhaps the loudest accuser of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell. She reacted via social media to Maxwell’s conviction on Wednesday for sex trafficking.
Elle added, “I hope today isn’t the end. It’s just another step toward justice being served.” Maxwell was not the only one to act. Maxwell was not the only one to be accountable. “I have faith they will.”
‘He clearly had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,’ said Bloom. ‘And an even closer relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell. He said that he had a closer relationship with Ghislaine in an interview. Now, she’s a convicted sex trader. So that just brings us one step closer to Prince Andrew.’
Attorney Brad Edwards, who was honored last month by the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for his pivotal role representing victims and helping bring down Epstein, told DailyMail.com that Prince Andrew has been denied his ‘hope for evil to win’.
‘This certainly doesn’t help Ghislaine’s buddy, Andrew. He has had plenty of opportunity to come forward and help, but unfortunately chose to stand in the shadows on team Ghislaine and Jeffrey and hope for evil to win,’ he said.
‘Well, that hasn’t worked out so well. Maybe he will repent and provide information now.’
Prince Andrew will likely face another blow ahead of his January 4, hearing. Manhattan federal judges Lewis Kaplan (New York) and Loretta Preska (New York) ruled that Epstein’s 2009 settlement agreement with Giuffre directly links to Giuffre’s civil case against Britain. The settlement between Epstein, Giuffre and Giuffre was made public in the early part of next week.
Maxwell, 60 was found guilty in five of the six cases of Epstein’s sexual trafficking minors. Now Maxwell faces a maximum of 65-years imprisonment. Maxwell and Epstein on vacation in Europe
Kaplan is presiding over Giuffre’s lawsuit against the prince for allegedly forcing her to have sex with him at Maxwell’s London home, and abusing her at two of Epstein’s mansions.
Brettler will argue in the upcoming hearing that Giuffre has long lived in Australia and can’t back up her claim to be a Colorado resident.
‘They’re trying every kind of legal loophole they can come up with, because he clearly does not want the case to be decided on its merits,’ said Bloom. ‘He does not want her to get into the courthouse door and get a trial. That’s exactly what she is fighting for.
‘It’s very disappointing that he wants to deprive her of her day in court. Even if he was innocent, he would want to be found not guilty and he has been fighting it all.
‘I wouldn’t advise him because I am 100% victims’ side now for the last four years,’ the attorney added. ‘But if I were advising him, I would tell him to come clean and apologize and cooperate with law enforcement, as he said he would do and then he never did.
‘Stop hiding behind your lawyers and let’s just get to the bottom of this.’
One of Bloom’s clients, named only as Kiki, said the verdict means Maxwell will have a small taste of how she and other victims felt.
‘No sentence or punishment will take away the trauma that we all had to endure at their hands, but now she will have to live with what she did, just the way the survivors have to live with it every day of our lives,’ Kiki said.
‘What she and Jeffrey did for their own sadistic pleasures, sentenced all of their victims to their own metaphorical prisons. I fight everyday to escape those 4 walls that entrapped me the day I was abused, and now she will know what that’s like for all of the girls she damaged for life.’
‘No matter how rich you are or powerful you are, if you choose to exploit and abuse, your day will come,’ Edwards said.
‘When I heard about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell 13 years ago, I decided not to stop until justice was served for all of the victims. This is a huge step forward. But it’s not over. Everyone else who played a role knows who they are.’