The Duke of York’s ‘friends’ are making absurdist arguments to defend him

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We’re at the absurdist part of this terrible Duke of York story. Prince Andrew was close friends with Jeffrey Epstein. One of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has said for years now that Epstein trafficked her to Andrew when she was only 17 years old. I believe her. This week, she stood in front of a bank of cameras and microphones and said that Andrew “knows what he’s done.” I agree. That’s why his denials are so… oddly worded. But according to one of Andrew’s close friends, this whole story is fake news. The only evidence – besides Virginia’s victim statements – is the photo with Andrew’s arm around Virginia, right?

That’s the smoking-gun, I guess. I would have believed Virginia without the photo, but I believe the photo is authentic too. But still, the Duke of York is trying:

Sources close to The Queen’s second son have hit out at the “witch-hunt” against him telling the Evening Standard the prince has “absolutely no recollection” of the picture. They also insist that the Duke’s fingers are “chubby” and do not resemble the hand seen in the infamous picture.

However, images have emerged which appear to cast doubt on their claims, reports The Daily Mail. The snaps show Andrew in London in July 2000 – showing the royal leaving a night club wearing almost the exact same outfit as he allegedly did in the picture with Ms Roberts. Those pictures prove that the prince enjoyed wearing dark trousers, a partially unbuttoned shirt and cufflinks shortly before the allegations were made.

His pals also refute Ms Roberts’ claim that she danced with the father-of-two in the capital’s Tramp night club insisting the Duke is “teetotal”. However, the new pictures show the prince leaving celeb haunt Chinawhite club – proving that he still frequented night spots in the city.

[From The Sun]

I mean, what other plays does Andrew have? “Those aren’t my fingers!” “I would never go to a nightclub!” “I would never wear that outfit!” Messy lies. And he’s actually making it so much worse, honestly.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

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63 Responses to “The Duke of York’s ‘friends’ are making absurdist arguments to defend him”

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  1. MeghanNotMarkle says:

    This whole thing turns my stomach. Bring him down already.

    • ByTheSea says:

      That picture is gross. The Maxwell woman looks like a madame/child trafficker in that photo.

      • whatWHAT? says:

        because she IS a madame/child trafficker.

        and I agree. it’s gross. the way he’s grabbed that TEENAGE GIRL is very possessive, and not just a friendly “hey, let’s pose for a pic”.

    • Adrianna says:

      That grip he’s got on her mid-section is so creepy. It’s like he’s really familiar with her. I would be very uncomfortable if someone did that to me…..and especially not in my teenage years.

  2. Rapunzel says:

    He’s a day away from using the twinkies defense.

    • Lexilla says:

      Yes but remember, the Twinkie defense worked.

      • Rapunzel says:

        And the fact that it did led to riots.

      • Anna says:

        What is the Twinkie defence?

      • annakarenina says:

        Anna, it’s a wildly simplified misunderstanding of the defense that Harvey Milk’s assassin used.

        Twinkies are a garbage American snack food. Mostly sugar and processed sugar.

        His defense team pointed to the fact he’d suddenly started eating a lot of sweet things and junk food as signs of changes in personality; the way it’s used now, people incorrectly assert that the defense was “it wasn’t his fault because he’d eaten too many Twinkies”.

      • Rapunzel says:

        Anna- re: the twinkie defense

        Anna Karenina explains it well, but I’ll add two things.

        1. Milk’s shooter claimed diminished capacity… basically, an insanity defense, based on the shooter’s depression. This is a standard kind of defense, but it got mocked because the shooter eating twinkies was used as evidence of depression, and it got turned into “he’s blaming the twinkies”

        2. The defense did work, as Lexilla notes, because it wasn’t really the absurd defense it was made out to be (as Anna K noted). The shooter got charged with manslaughter rather than murder. But there were riots in protest.

        This was just a joke on my part…based on the exaggerated view of the twinkie defense. But I wouldn’t put it past Randy PedoAndy to claim some diminished capacity. After all, he’s already claiming fake fingers.

      • annakarenina says:

        Yup, plus they were “lucky” enough to rely on the homophobia of the general populace.

        Just like Andy is “lucky” enough that a lot of men don’t see anything wrong with what he’s done.

  3. Pinkberry says:

    Why didn’t he says that when the photo was first published? The picture is genuine.

    • annakarenina says:

      Also they want us to believe that this photo was faked, that someone went to all that trouble, to fake a photo of him with his arm around a girl? If someone was trying to frame him with fake photos, why wouldn’t they mock up something far more graphic and send that to the papers?

      The BRF is terrible at this. They’re so used to being able to sweep things under the rug and cry about how tough life is.

  4. Digital Unicorn says:

    The Fail has a great article blowing this denial to bits. They publish a photo of him wearing the same shirt and cuff links. Thou not sure from the same evening.

    Plus he’s commented about this in the past saying it was innocent or something.

    PS. I wonder if Mummy will throw him to the wolves to save her own skin over proroguing parliament and her part in attempting to subvert democracy.

    • Jadedone says:

      I’m actually kinda impressed that the Fail is really looking into Andrew, they even procured flight logs showing Andrew was on the same plane as the victim

      • Tourmaline says:

        I agree with you, Rebecca English and the DM are really going after this. She posted on her Twitter the other day a shot of the hard copy of a recent story where DM gave BP a list of questions in response to Andrew’s ridic statement last weekend.

        One of the things pointed out was that Andrew says he only met Epstein in 1999 but flight logs detailed by the DM show he was flying to Sicko Island with Epstein and Maxwell in February 1999. DM’s question was if he only met him in 1999 how were they such good buddies by February? Also pointed out that Epstein was in the Bahamas with Fergie and her then-young daughters in 1998.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        Even Daily Fail journalists, especially the female journalists, have some morals & ethics they stick to and hanging around with a convicted child molester for 20 years really does not cut it with anyone other than Donald J. Chump.

      • Birds eye view says:

        The ‘friends’ will be his PR staff. why didn’t they claim the photograph was fake when it first came out? he’s as guilty as sin…I hope they go after him til they get him ..and his leeching wife should be done for taking money from a pedo.

  5. Blahblahblah says:

    PA is such a garbage pile.

    His smug ass needs to be brought down.

  6. Citresse says:

    Yeah, it’s the fingers, Andrew’s fingers in photo, they’re not pudgy enough, it’s a fake photo yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket, and yeah, that’s not real flight logs, yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket, etc gimme a break, this is so pathetic……and HM? I used to believe she was in massive amounts of denial about Andrew; the golden child, but now I’m starting to believe she counts those underage girls as lucky to go to bed with a magical, perfect English prince.

    • Bookworm says:

      Oh yes, probably sniffing at this ungrateful, impertinent guttersnipe.

    • Spicecake38 says:

      Excellent point,as I’ve been questioning the same thing,like I really think TQ and pedophile prince believe these very young girls were privileged to ,ahem,be in the company of such a dashing prince (puke)!They are so far up their own a$$ they don’t see the disgusting truth of what has been done.

  7. AnnaKist says:

    Between the Blonde Boofhead’s and this creep’s shenanigans, the BRF is now looking dodgier than ever.

  8. Loretta says:

    He’s disgusting.

  9. paranormalgirl says:

    God, dude, you know what you did. He needs to be destroyed.

  10. Gail says:

    Of course they are, they’ll all expect some kind of reward from TQ for helping to defend pedo Andy.
    We all know Ms. Giuffre is telling the truth, claiming such nonsense as “those aren’t his fingers!” are acts of desperation . Ludicrous that they’re actually stooping so low, it’s like an excuse from a toddler.

    • (TheOG)@Jan90067 says:

      Ludicrous are his friends “defending” him, and them (incl. RF) expecting ANYONE to believe that crap.

    • annakarenina says:

      Guys. There are no “friends” defending him. It’s just the RF PR as the source claiming to be a friend. Like… would you ever run to a paper to comment about the appearance of a friend’s fingers/hands in a photo? They’re really, really bad at this.

      • Coco says:

        I’m with you AnnaK. They are so bad at this. I honestly don’t know where they can go from here. It’s that bad. It can’t get more bad.

    • Tourmaline says:

      I actually wonder if it isn’t Fergie herself who is one of the ‘friends” quoted in that one article, going on about how Andrew is teetotal so the claim of Virginia that he was drinking cocktails in Tramp nightclub must be a lie.

      In fact I predict we are probably days away from Fergie and possibly their daughters coming out with a public defense of their old standby “the Duke of York is the most wonderful man in the world!” This fake photo claim shows they are getting beyond desperate. Is the whole photo fake? Just his hands? How come he didn’t claim this years ago when their was the initial furor over the photo and Virginia’s claims?

      This isn’t going away any time soon. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ghislaine is hiding out in Royal Lodge at Windsor or in one of the York’s vacation properties such as the Verbier chalet they mysteriously had millions and millions of dollars to buy.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        I don’t think he has always been tea total – like a lot of people maybe he did when he became a certain age.

      • Gail says:

        Ha! As if Fergie would be a good character witness for anyone, never mind her “handsome prince” . I’m sure she’s been told in no uncertain terms to keep her mouth shut.

  11. Seraphina says:

    This is how entitled and fearless they are: proof, a photograph and yet he still claims innocence. Yet how many people go to jail and lose their freedom without this much evidence???? This family has really begun to make me feel sick to my stomach when I think of the injustice for so many and yet Andrew lives his best life.

  12. Jen says:

    What an evil man. The whole family disgusts me, but he needs to be brought down and quickly. However, his mommy will continue to protect him from any real consequences.

  13. Mignionette says:

    As I said in another thread the rags already have him and know EVERYTHING. They are now playing cat and mouse with him in the hopes he trips up and exposes himself.

    As i previously posted Epstein’s trial was just after the time when News International was first caught ‘hacking’ the phones of celebs, criminals and the Royals.

    2005 – 2006: Prince William realises that he is being hacked and an investigation begins into the hacking of confidential communications of the Royals.

    2005: Epstein is also under investigation for the first time in Florida. The private investigators working for News International would have known of his links to Andy and likely paid particular attention to communications between the two. After that Andy would have been on their radar. As UK Trade Envoy there would have been legitimate reasons to be focused on him and for journalist to be around him.

    I can only imagine the amount of evidence they had amassed on Andy in the preceding years and during that particularly important trail period including possibly communications between Epstein and the authorities.

    In fact a few years later the FBI launched an investigation into News International to determine whether they had hacked into FBI communications after 9/11.

    The above leads me to believe that they know EVERYTHING and that this will never go away.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      If the UK paps got any evidence illegally they can’t use it or share it with the authorities (unless the negotiate a ‘non prosecution’ agreement).

      I agree with you that they have dirt on Andrew and yeah they are baiting him to hang himself as lets face it, the oaf is too stupid to realise he’s being played like a fiddle by the tabloids – as some point he’s going to inadvertently out himself. Either that or his equally dumb ex-wife will say something incriminating in her eagerness to defend her meal ticket.

  14. Eleonor says:

    Why the police isn’t investigating also Ghislaine? She is there smiling.

  15. JoanCallamezzo says:

    I learned from Laineygossip years ago that the British Royal family has a distinct way of speaking that separates/elevates them from other blue bloods. They are taught etiquette on steroids but this body language it looks like he’s excited to get a new toy. Vomit.

    • annakarenina says:

      Ha, Lainey never has any idea what she’s talking about. Many of the Royals have less posh accents than people on similar social standing. Most boys at school with William and Harry would have had posher accents; theirs are famously more relaxed than, for example, Prince Charles’.

    • KEEKS says:

      I love how Lainey is lashing out on her site every day about this smug, disgusting creature. He knows what he did. They all know what he did. Did I just read that Eugenie advocates against slavery? And in October they will march to protest slavery? Will her daddy dearest, PedaltoPedophilia Andrew be marching considering he was an active participant in sex slavery? HRH should stand for His Royal Hypocrisy. I am confused by which slavery she is talking about, whether it be Black Slavery or Slavery in general, so don’t be lashing out at me today.

      • annakarenina says:

        Prince Andrew’s children are not responsible for what he’s done. Would you suggest she instead host a rally advocating child molesting, since her father has done that and anything else would be hypocrisy?

      • Nic919 says:

        Eugenie does charity work to make herself look good and feel good about herself. There are a thousand issues she could support and since her dad has associated with a convicted sex trafficker and has victimized girls as well then she needs to stay away from that topic. We know she won’t address what her dad has done in public, so she isn’t helping anyone but her own ego by publicly working on this issue.

        How would any sex trafficking victim feel talking about her own story to a woman whose father has used his extreme privilege to abuse girls and get away with it ? It’s completely insensitive to the actual victims. I still don’t know why anyone is defending Eugenie on this. It’s all about her ego to continue working on this at this point. Sometimes life isn’t fair but there is a hell of a difference between not being able to be the philanthropic face of an issue versus being an actual sex trafficking victim.

      • Hope says:

        Eugenie was happy to pose with her father and march down the aisle with him on her wedding day.

        She celebrated her parents’ “anniversary” and then we had rumors of her parents remarrying possibly to protect Fergie from having to testify against Andrew.

        Eugenie is cleaning up their image. She has to call out her father or at least address this story if she’s going to talk about sex slavery. She can’t avoid that while also putting herself in the space meant to advocate for survivors. She can’t grin and celebrate her parents while invading the safe spaces of survivors. What she’s doing is very self-serving.

      • xo says:

        @Nic919: You cannot know Eugenie’s motivations. Don’t pretend to.

  16. Citresse says:

    To the UK press: release more on golden boy Andrew.

  17. Myra says:

    It’s over for Andrew. At this point if he escorts TQ to any event it will cast a negative shadow over her. Andrew will be pushed to the back, so will his daughters. Charles will be happy.

    • annakarenina says:

      We’ll see. I bet the Queen digs in on it. Her press instincts are terrible and Andrew knows his Golden Son status.

      Look. much less high-profile people believe all the time that their criminal kids didn’t REALLY do it. The Queen may genuinely believe he’s innocent, and her poor widdle baby boy is just being attacked by all these vicious monsters. Or she may know.

      But I don’t see her backing down.

      • Hope says:

        The Queen’s family is trashy. It’s very likely that she simply doesn’t care as long as it doesn’t affect her own image.

    • Mego says:

      It will be interesting to see. Philip got his ass to Balmoral and put the boots to Andrew pretty quickly when this broke. I don’t think he’s going to stand for PA being the Queen’s escort any longer.

  18. OriginalRose says:

    Have you noticed how the language is changing though? From something like he ‘strenuously denies’ a couple of weeks ago to now ‘no recollection of’…I really hope the pressure stays on and that the Brexit news cycle doesn’t bury it

    • Tourmaline says:

      David Boies is Virginia’s attorney and he is a killer lawyer. He will not be dropping this matter.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        Yes, he gave an interview to Sky News where he said that they are exploring legal avenues against Andrew and that they would prefer him to talk to them private of his own volition. Either way they are coming for him. And either way he has to answer for his action and the mounting incriminating evidence.

        Andrew is like Chump in that no self respecting lawyer will let him speak to opposing counsel as they will out themselves. Andrew is entitled, stupid and arrogant enough to think he can say and do whatever he wants and get away with it – just because Mummy is The Queen.

      • Tourmaline says:

        @Digital so right–entitled, stupid, arrogant–that statement Andrew released last weekend was so spectacularly craptastic. In her new Guardian column Marina Hyde wrote that royal sources believe he drafted and released that himself going over the heads of usual palace flacks. Real smart move.

  19. Jen says:

    What I will never understand is why people happily pose for pics when they’re behaving badly. He’s awful, of course. But he’s posing like he hasn’t a care in the world. Idiot.

  20. Capepopsie says:

    Disgusting mess.

  21. Grant says:

    This whole affair makes my stomach turn. I hope PA and the MF-ing Queen are both held accountable. Disgusting and shameful.

  22. jules says:

    He has gone through life having everything (and, apparently, “everyone”) he wants, buying his way out of situations, outsourcing virtually all of his responsibilities to his minions (they probably wipe his bum and brush his teeth for him)!!! He needs to be held accountable, stand on his own two feet and speak for himself — not hiring others to write and issue garbage statements, not having friends (God, he has friends??!) defend him and not hide behind Mummy.

  23. Molly says:

    Would be nice to see one article where the British Taxpayers refuse to support Andrew as a “working Royal” just one article. Meghan received over 100 such articles because she didn’t want to be photographed minutes after having a baby. Surely Brits could be outraged about Tax Payer money for Andrew!

  24. asdfa says:

    I can’t understand why these idiots (not the poor teenagers who were trafficked, but the oligarch customers of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell) would willingly pose for PICTURES. Were these society parties with photographers?