The lawyer David Boies is good at getting attention for his cases and his clients. That’s one of the reasons why Virginia Giuffre hired him. Boies is Virginia’s main lawyer in her civil suit against Prince Andrew. Andrew wants the lawsuit dismissed, and a decision about that will be made in January. If the lawsuit goes ahead, additional witnesses will obviously be called upon, and likely there are more depositions to come. Which brings me to the latest Royalist piece in the Daily Beast. Tom Sykes spoke to Boies, who (again) knows how to get attention for his clients. Boies told Sykes that he was considering deposing the Duchess of Sussex in the case, because she might have been a witness to some of Prince Andrew’s behavior while Meghan was in the UK.

David Boies, the star attorney representing Virginia Roberts Giuffre in her legal action against Prince Andrew, may seek to depose Meghan Markle as part of Giuffre’s civil suit, as he believes she may have picked up “important knowledge” about the embattled royal’s behavior.

“She is somebody we can count on to tell the truth,” Boies told The Daily Beast. Markle, he said, was a potential deposition subject for three reasons: “One; she is in the U.S. so we have jurisdiction over her. Two; she is somebody who obviously, at least for a period of time, was a close associate of Prince Andrew and hence is in a position to perhaps have seen what he did, and perhaps if not to have seen what he did to have heard people talk about it. Because of her past association with him, she may very well have important knowledge, and will certainly have some knowledge. Three; she is somebody who we can count on to tell the truth. She checks all three boxes.”

If Giuffre’s case gets past a January 4 motion to dismiss by Andrew’s side, the suit will enter full discovery mode, in the course of which both Andrew and Giuffre will have to give videotaped oral depositions and answer written “interrogatories.”

“Andrew will be forced to give evidence under oath” as part of that process, Boies said, adding, “He has no way of escaping that.”

Boies said that as many as 10 or 12 third parties could be deposed and that another potential target could be Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, although getting a deposition for her as a non-U.S. resident would be more complex than Meghan, as the British courts would have to approve the request. Boies said, “We would likely take one or two depositions of people close to Andrew who would have knowledge of his actions. That might include his ex-wife. It could possibly be his brother.”

Asked if he might seek to depose Andrew’s mother, Boies said, “I don’t think, out of respect and deference, and her age, we would seek to depose the queen. I don’t think she is going to have any knowledge that other people don’t have. I think that he is unlikely to have spoken as freely to his mother about some of this stuff as he might have to his contemporaries, or his ex-wife.”

Boies said that Prince Harry’s wife, who is an American citizen living in the United States and therefore obligated to co-operate, “is one of the people we are considering” but cautioned that a firm decision had not yet been made.

[From The Daily Beast]

Boies is saying Meghan’s name for several reasons. One, she’s an American citizen, living in the US and technically it would be less of a hassle to depose Meghan, as opposed to going through embassies and the State Department and everybody else to depose foreign nationals. Two, Boies is putting pressure on Andrew, saying that he (Boies) can “get” to members of the royal family. Three, by using Meghan’s name, he’s simply drawing more attention to the strength of Virginia’s case, and his plans to go to the mattresses for his client. Just to underline this point: Meghan is not in trouble and Boies doesn’t actually believe that Meghan is a witness to serious crimes. If anything, she would be deposed to speak to Andrew’s character and how she saw him behave from 2016-2020.

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