A 2009 settlement agreement between late financier Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexual abuse, provides a release from liability for "any other person or entity" who could have been a defendant against claims by Ms Giuffre, a court filing has showed.
The deal, which provided for Ms Giuffre to be paid $500,000, was made public as part of her civil lawsuit accusing Britain's Prince Andrew of sexual abuse.
Giuffre's lawsuit accuses Prince Andrew of forcing her to have sex more than two decades ago when she was under 18 at the London home of former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and abusing her at two of Epstein's homes.
Ms Giuffre, now 38, is seeking unspecified damages in a civil lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.
Prince Andrew has denied Ms Giuffre's assertions and has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguinh sheis seeking a "payday" from her accusations against Epstein and his associates.
The prince has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing.
He argued the previously-confidential agreement between Ms Giuffre and Epstein, whom she has accused of trafficking her for sex when she was a teenager, shields him from liability.
It will now be up to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan to determine whether the clause in the 2009 shielding others from liability blocks Ms Giuffre from suing Prince Andrew.
A hearing over Prince Andrew's motion to dismiss the civil lawsuit is scheduled for Tuesday.
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges.
Meanwhile Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend and Andrew's friend, faces the rest of her life in jail after she was convicted last week of helping to procure teenage girls for the disgraced financier to sexually abuse.
