Connect with us

Virginia

Virginia Giuffre’s memoir details Prince Andrew allegations, a friendly meeting with Trump, and more. Here are some takeaways.

Published

on

Virginia Giuffre’s memoir details Prince Andrew allegations, a friendly meeting with Trump, and more. Here are some takeaways.


In her posthumously published memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre shares a personal account of the story that made headlines worldwide: her accusations against Prince Andrew and years of alleged trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein.

“Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice” was released on Tuesday. Guiffre died by suicide earlier this year.

Here are some key takeaways from the book:

More details about Prince Andrew

Giuffre’s book alleges that she had sex with Prince Andrew three times, including when she was 17, after being trafficked by Epstein. One time, she said, was part of an orgy involving around eight other girls.

Advertisement

“The other girls all seemed and appeared to be under the age of eighteen and didn’t really speak English,” Giuffre said.

She said that, as her legal case progressed, Andrew made it difficult for her legal team to serve him papers by “fleeing to Queen Elizabeth’s Balmoral Castle in Scotland and hiding behind its well-guarded gates.” Andrew denied her allegations.

But a turning point came with Andrew’s November 2019 interview on the BBC program Newsnight. He was widely criticized for seeming to lack empathy when asked about the accusations, and Giuffre says the interview “was like an injection of jet fuel” for her legal team.

“Its contents would not only help us build an ironclad case against the prince but also open the door to potentially subpoenaing his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie,” Giuffre wrote.

She said her settlement negotiations with Andrew began to move quickly after he hired American lawyer Andrew Brettler, who had worked with other public figures facing #MeToo allegations.

Advertisement

Brettler “was less reluctant than some of his British counterparts to face reality,” Giuffre wrote.

Giuffre said she and her team were asking for more than money as part of the settlement: They wanted an acknowledgement of what Giuffre had been through.

“After casting doubt on my credibility for so long — Prince Andrew’s team had even gone so far as to try to hire internet trolls to hassle me — the Duke of York owed me a meaningful apology as well. We would never get a confession, of course.”

The settlement was announced on Feb. 15, 2022, and Prince Andrew and Giuffre issued a joint statement which made clear he would pay Giuffre money, but didn’t specify the amount. It also said he would make a “substantial donation” in support of victims’ rights to Giuffre’s nonprofit organization. Andrew did not admit wrongdoing but said in court documents that he “regrets his association with Epstein.”

“I agreed to a one-year gag order, which seemed important to the prince because it ensured that his mother’s Platinum Jubilee would not be tarnished any more than it already had been,” Giuffre wrote.

Advertisement

Last week, ahead of the publication of Giuffre’s memoir, Prince Andrew announced he would no longer use his Duke of York title, after already having stepped back from royal duties in 2019.

Mar-a-Lago and a meeting with Trump

Before she first encountered Gislaine Maxwell and was brought into Epstein’s world, in 2000, Giuffre worked at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, alongside her father, who was a maintenance man responsible for the air conditioning units in hotel rooms, as well as the clay tennis courts.

“I remember he gave me a brief tour before presenting me to the hiring manager who — after I passed both a drug test and a polygraph — agreed to take me on,” Giuffre wrote. She said she met Mr. Trump a few days after starting work at the resort.

“They weren’t friends exactly. But Dad worked hard, and Trump liked that,” Giuffre said.

When she met Mr. Trump in his office, she said he “couldn’t have been friendlier, telling me it was fantastic I was there.”

Advertisement

He also asked if she babysat, Guiffre wrote, mentioning families with children who stayed in his properties nearby.

But it was also at Mar-a-Lago that Giuffre said she first met Ghislaine Maxwell.

“One steaming hot day some weeks before my seventeenth birthday, I was walking toward the Mar-a-Lago spa, on my way to work, when a car slowed behind me. I wish I could say that I sensed that something evil was tracking me, but as I headed into the building, I had no inkling of the danger I was in,” Giuffre said.

Maxwell jumped out of the car and introduced herself to Giuffre.

“I wish I could say that I saw through Maxwell’s polished facade — that, like a horse, I intuited the immense threat she posed to me. Instead, my first impression of Maxwell was the same one I formed when I greeted any well-heeled Mar-a-Lago guest. I’d be lucky, I thought, if I could grow up to be anything like her.”

Advertisement

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal charges including sex trafficking conspiracy, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Epstein died in jail in 2019 after his arrest on sex trafficking charges.

Mr. Trump has denied knowledge of Epstein and Maxwell’s activities.

Giuffre’s message to the world

Giuffre writes about how the abuse she was subjected to affected her and how she dedicated herself to standing up those who harmed her and supporting others to do the same.

“Don’t be fooled by those in Epstein’s circle who say they didn’t know what Epstein was doing,” Guiffre said at the end of the book. “Anyone who spent any significant amount of time with Epstein saw him touching girls in ways you wouldn’t want a creepy old man touching your daughter. They can say they didn’t know he was raping children. But they were not blind. (Not to mention the fact that many prominent people were still associating with him years after).”

Though it was difficult, Guiffre said she was glad she had worked to share her story.

Advertisement

“I don’t regret it, but the constant telling and retelling has been extremely painful and exhausting,” she said.

Guiffre leaves readers with this message:

“I hope my story has moved you — to seek ways to free yourself from a bad situation, say, to stand up for someone else in need, or to simply reframe how you judge victims of sexual abuse. Each one of us can make positive change. I truly believe that. I hope for a world in which predators are punished, not protected; victims are treated with compassion, not shamed; and powerful people face the same consequences as anyone else. I yearn, too, for a world in which perpetrators face more shame than their victims do and where anyone who’s been trafficked can confront their abusers when they are ready, no matter how much time has passed. We don’t live in this world yet. …  If this book moves us even an inch closer to a reality like that — if it helps just one person — I will have achieved my goal.”



Source link

Virginia

Obama calls on voters to help Democrats’ Virginia redistricting ahead of midterm elections

Published

on

Obama calls on voters to help Democrats’ Virginia redistricting ahead of midterm elections


Former President Barack Obama is calling on voters in Virginia to support a ballot measure this spring that would change the commonwealth’s constitution and cause new congressional district boundaries benefiting Democrats to be used in this fall’s midterm elections. 

In a video posted to social media on Thursday morning, Obama noted the surge of mid-decade redistricting started last year when Texas Republicans started work to shift five Democratic seats and make them more favorable to Republicans. 

Since then, California Democrats were able to redraw the lines involving five GOP-held seats to try and offset Texas’ gerrymander. Republicans in North Carolina and Missouri last year also altered a Democratic-held seat in each of their respective states to try and help the GOP. 

“In April, Virginians can respond by making sure your voting power is not diminished by what Republicans are doing in other states,” Obama, a Democrat, said in the video. “This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall.” 

Advertisement

Republicans hold a narrow majority in the U.S. House and are contending with the prospect of losing control of the chamber this fall when every seat is on the ballot. 

Virginia Democrats’ redistricting effort has proven to be a lengthy process, and legal concerns have surrounded much of the work and thrown some uncertainty into the outcome. The commonwealth’s map in place at the moment resulted in six House seats for Democrats in the 2024 election and five for Republicans. Plans offered by elected Democratic leaders this year would try and shift those lines in a way that could result in  sending 10 Democrats back to the House and just one Republican. 

“Democrats’ illegal gerrymandering power grab is an affront to democracy and rigs our maps to turn Virginia into a one-party state,” the Republican Party of Virginia said last month on social media, adding “It is an intentional effort to silence and disenfranchise half our Commonwealth.” 

After the 2020 Census, both Democratic and Republican led states indulged in the well-worn practice of gerrymandering, drawing districts that favored their own parties and lessening the chances of competitive races. 

But the series of mid-decade redraws impacting the 2026 midterms essentially represent a break from tradition and have put Democrats in the position of having to backtrack on some of their past messaging on the issue. “For too long, gerrymandering has contributed to stalled progress and warped our representative government,” Obama himself said on social media in 2020. 

Advertisement

A statewide vote is set for April 21 on whether to change Virginia’s constitution and give the General Assembly the ability to change the maps just months before general election contests will be held. Early voting is set to start Friday. 

Virginia is more of a purple state, and it’s unclear what will happen to the constitutional amendment in the April 21 special election. Republicans widely oppose the effort, and additional congressional redistricting in GOP-led Florida could lessen the impact of any changes made in Virginia. 



Source link

Continue Reading

Virginia

‘Explosions every day’: Virginia woman on her way to a wedding in India is stuck in Qatar

Published

on

‘Explosions every day’: Virginia woman on her way to a wedding in India is stuck in Qatar


Arlington, Virginia, resident Anjali Sharma — stuck in the Middle Eastern since Saturday — documents her story on social media from a hotel in Doha, Qatar.

“I think it really hit me when I saw black smoke coming from afar on one of the buildings, and it ended up being a missile that got defused, and the debris fell on the ground and caused an explosion,” Sharma said.

She was on her way to a wedding in India and had a layover in Qatar when Iran’s retaliatory strikes began. The airspace in Qatar and several other nearby countries is closed.

Sharma is alone. She says the rest of her family she was supposed to meet with had their flights canceled.

Advertisement

She says it’s incredibly unsettling.

“I hear explosions every day,” Sharma said. “I hear planes going outside. I mean, I still hear military jets, right now. I don’t really know what that means.”

She is one of several thousands of Americans stranded in the Middle East. The State Department said it’s assisted almost 6,500 Americans since the conflict began.

Sharma says she hasn’t been able to get any clear guidance.

“I would just really appreciate it if the U.S. government could get clear guidelines of what they’re going to do to get us out and when that even may be,” she said.

Advertisement

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., has been critical of the Trump administration’s evacuation efforts. He says his office has heard from about 100 families whose loved ones are stranded abroad.

“The primary reason the State Department exists is to serve Americans living abroad, and they’re desperately failing at that, right now,” he said.

The White House said the secretary of state issued Level 4 travel advisories dating to January. But Qatar was not one of the countries given a do-not-travel advisory.

The State Department Wednesday created a new form for stranded citizens to fill out. They say it will provide departure information about available aviation and ground transportation options.

Sharma hopes it’s her ticket out.

Advertisement

“I just want to get out of here safely at this point.”



Source link

Continue Reading

Virginia

Giants will hold 2026 training camp in West Virginia

Published

on

Giants will hold 2026 training camp in West Virginia


The New York Giants will be forced to hold their 2026 training camp, the first with John Harbaugh as head coach, out of state.

Per a report from the New York Post, the Giants will hold what will likely be the first two weeks of training camp in West Virginia at the Greenbrier Resort, located in White Sulpher Springs.

Part of the reason for the move is the fact that World Cup games will be held at MetLife Stadium this summer. There is also ongoing construction at the Giants’ facility at 1925 Giants Drive. The Giants are expanding their locker room, weight room, dining facility and office space at their headquarters, constructed in 2009. That work began before Harbaugh was named head coach.

NFL teams have used the Greenbier extensively since 2014, when it was first established to host training camp for the New Orleans Saints. The Houston Texans and Cleveland Browns have held training camps there, and other have practiced there during extended road trips.

Advertisement

The facility has two grass fields and a FieldTurf field, as well as all of the other accommodations an NFL needs.

The Giants have trained at their own Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J. since 2013.

Exact dates for NFL training camps have not yet been set, but the starting date is generally some time in late July. Per the Post, most practices at the Greenbrier are expected to be open to the public.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending