Prince Andrew’s legal team has been given two months to prepare for a court hearing to try to get a judge to throw out the bombshell lawsuit brought by sexual assault accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday listed a hearing for Jan. 4 to “hear argument on defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint.”
The announcement came a day after Kaplan said that he expects the lawsuit to go ahead with a trial date likely sometime between next September and the end of 2022.
Giuffre, now 38, has for years alleged that late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his accused madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, made her have sex with the UK royal three times, starting in 2001 when she was 17.
After initially trying to avoid getting served her lawsuit, Andrew’s legal team finally hit back late last month — accusing Giuffre of being a sex trafficker herself, and targeting Andrew for a payday.
“Virginia Giuffre may well be a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, and nothing can excuse, nor fully capture, the abhorrence and gravity of Epstein’s monstrous behavior against Giuffre, if so,” one memo in support of his motion to dismiss said.
“However, and without diminishing the harm suffered as a results of Epstein’s alleged misconduct, Prince Andrew never sexually abused or assaulted Giuffre,” the court document said.
“He unequivocally denies Giuffre’s false allegations against him,” the memo read, calling Andrew “a member of the world’s best known royal family.”
“Epstein’s abuse of Giuffre does not justify her public campaign against Prince Andrew,” the document claimed.
His attorneys have also insisted that Andrew is among a group of Epstein’s pals who are automatically covered by a settlement his accuser signed with the pedophile in 2009.
The filings also accused Giuffre of being “involved [in] the willful recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse” — quoting one of her ex-boyfriends as calling her “the head b—h” of the operation.
Both attorneys said they expected to depose eight to 12 individuals, including Giuffre and Andrew, and a “number of potential witnesses.”
Epstein hanged himself in his Manhattan lockup in August 2019 while awaiting trial on multiple sex charges.
Media heiress Maxwell, a 59-year-old close friend of Andrew’s, is scheduled to go to trial this month on criminal charges alleging she recruited teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
Potential jurors began filling out questionnaires Thursday and opening statements are scheduled for Nov. 29. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty.