Virginia
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.
“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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
“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.”
Virginia
Virginia’s special election redistricting battle is next week and has national impacts
Virginians are heading to the polls to vote “yes” or “no” on a ballot initiative in a high-stakes special election that could upend this year’s midterm elections.
Voters on Tuesday will decide if they want to move forward with Democrats’ redistricting plan which would significantly change the state’s congressional map, giving Democrats a 10-1 advantage instead of the current 6-5 Democratic to Republican split.
Virginia is one of many states that took a look at their congressional maps this year after President Donald Trump encouraged Republican-led states to redraw their maps ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Both parties in Virginia are pushing get out the vote efforts as early voting lags behind previous years and a huge amount of cash is flowing into the mid-decade redistricting effort.
Here’s what to know:
Democrats try to eliminate several GOP seats
In February, Virginia Democrats finalized an agreement over how to redraw the state’s congressional map. It would lead to eight safely Democratic districts, two districts that lean Democratic and one safe Republican district.
As it currently stands, Virginia has six Democrats and five Republicans in the House.
The amendment passed by Democrats in February would temporarily bypass the state’s typical redistricting process. If voters approve the amendment through the referendum on April 21, Democrats would be able to move forward with their map.
The amendment would put in place a temporary process. After the 2030 census, the state’s standard redistricting process would resume with maps to be decided by a bipartisan commission.
The lead-up to the election has seen an influx of spending, and The Washington Post noted that due to state election records, 95% of the total $93 million raised as of Monday came from nonprofit groups that are not required to disclose their donors.
The leading group, Virginians for Fair Elections, reported raising $64 million in favor of the referendum. About $40 million of that came from House Majority Forward, which is led by House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the Post reported using data from tracking firm AdImpact. The Fairness Project added $11.7 million to the effort. It’s backed by new Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
Virginians for Fair Elections secured a television advertisement for voting “yes” on the ballot initiative featuring former President Barack Obama. He said voting the measure through was the “responsible” thing to do.
The group that wants Virginians to vote “no” on the measure is made up of several smaller groups, including Virginians for Fair Maps. That group took in $22 million and another $7 million was raised by Justice for Democracy PAC, an anti-redistricting group, Cardinal News, a southern Virginia outlet, reported.
According to Cardinal News, the $7 million donation to the PAC was given by a nonprofit, which didn’t have to disclose its donors. However, that same nonprofit was used by billionaire Peter Thiel in support of Vice President JD Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign.
Even if Virginians pass the measure, the process putting in place the new map is still under judicial review, with the state Supreme Court hearing a challenge later this month.
The Deseret News has reached out to both Virginians for Fair Maps and the Fairness Project for comment.
How did we get here?
Trump kick-started the redistricting battle last year with the Texas Republican congressional delegation and told them the state should seek five new seats that the Republican Party could win through redistricting.
It was a sign that Trump was looking to not have a repeat of his first presidency, when Democrats flipped the House two years into his term.
In response, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared “game on” and instructed the California state Legislature to redraw the state’s maps to find five additional seats for the Democrats.
Californians overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50 in a special election last year.
Missouri followed, calling a special session to redraw its state map, looking to gain one GOP seat. North Carolina was next, announcing new plans for a redistricting session last October.
Several other states have joined the nationwide fight, wotj varying outcomes, including Ohio, New York, Maryland, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas.
What does it mean?
Historically, the party that controls the White House almost always loses ground with voters in the midterm elections. In the last 20 out of 22 midterms dating back to 1938, the president’s party has lost ground in the House; the only exceptions were due to unusual circumstances like the 9/11 terror attacks and former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
Upon returning to the White House, Trump has had the benefit of a slim Republican majority in both the House and Senate. In the House, there are currently 217 Republicans, 213 Democrats, one independent that caucuses with the GOP and four vacancies.
While the GOP looks to gain about 15 new seats through redistricting, Democrats may come out on top. According to RealClearPolitics’ polling averages for generic 2026 congressional voting, Democrats have a 5.6 percentage point advantage, up 2.9 percentage points from last October.
It’s a trend that may change over the next several months, particularly as the Trump administration aims to make its case with voters that the Iran war was necessary and consumers see gas prices stabilize.
However, it is something that has Republicans concerned. They’ve shown enough concern that Democrats could flip the House and even the Senate — where the GOP has a 53-45 majority — that they are preparing for a Supreme Court justice retirement in the coming months. They know that if Democrats control the upper chamber and a retirement happens, there’s no way one of Trump’s appointees would be voted through.
Virginia
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Virginia
Skydiver rescued after crashing into scoreboard during Virginia Tech football scrimmage
A skydiver crashed into the Lane Stadium scoreboard before Virginia Tech’s spring football game Saturday.
Virginia Tech officials said on X that the skydiver “was safely secured and is currently stable” following rescue efforts. The incident caused a delay in the start of the spring game.
“Thankful for game days with Hokie Nation and for the Blacksburg and Virginia Tech first responders whose quick actions safely returned today’s parachuter to the ground without injury,” the university said.
The name of the skydiver wasn’t released.
“Our primary focus remains on their well-being,” Virginia Tech officials said in a statement. “We extend our sincere appreciation to the first responders, event staff, and medical personnel for their swift, coordinated and professional response.”
Video footage showed the skydiver’s parachute landing between the “C” and the “H” on the Virginia Tech lettering on top of the scoreboard before first responders rescued him.
CBS News has reached out to the Blacksburg Fire Department for details on the incident.
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