Royal Expert Explains How Prince Andrew Is Trying To Save Face With His Current Legal Strategy - Exclusive

Prince Andrew continues to maintain his innocence in the sexual assault case against him. The disgraced Duke of York, who has recently been stripped of his military titles by Queen Elizabeth herself, has failed to have the civil case filed against him by Virginia Giuffre thrown out. He is adamant that he has nothing to do with the sexual allegations made against him by the accuser, who claims that the royal abused her when she was underage, per CNN. 

"Prince Andrew denies that he was a co-conspirator of Epstein or that Epstein trafficked girls to him," his attorneys Andrew B. Brettler and Melissa Y. Lerner wrote in an 11-page filing, per CNN. His camp also maintains that if any sexual activity had occurred between the two parties, it was completely consensual. But now that his request for dismissal has been tossed, Prince Andrew is demanding a trial by jury, which lawyer Lisa Blooms claims is a "PR move." It turns out that Giuffre had already requested a jury trial when she filed her complaint.

"Prince Andrew's answer continues his approach of denying any knowledge or information concerning the claims against him, and purporting to blame the victim of the abuse for somehow bringing it on herself," David Boies, attorney for Giuffre said. "We look forward to confronting Prince Andrew with his denials and attempts to blame Ms. Giuffre for her own abuse at his deposition and at trial." With all these recent developments, a royal expert believes that Prince Andrew's latest move is his last-ditch effort to save face.

It appears that Queen Elizabeth did not influence Prince Andrew to move forward on his demand to have a trial by jury. Kinsey Schofield, entertainment reporter, royal correspondent, and founder of To Di For Daily, exclusively told Nicki Swift that he may have done it to prove his innocence. "I do not believe the queen would encourage a jury trial... I think this is Andrew trying to prove to his family and the public that he is in fact innocent," Schofield said. "He is known as being stubborn and hard-headed (not to mention arrogant) and I think that this is another example of that. The queen would not have to sign off on his strategy because she has removed herself from the situation by removing Andrew's titles and forcing him to fight this as a civilian."

The expert also believes that jury by trial may do Prince Andrew's case more harm than good. "Prince Andrew is not a very likable character so I would be concerned with a jury trial because it will be hard to find individuals that will sympathize with a man accused of taking advantage of an underage girl," Schofield added. "While there might not be any physical evidence to prove that the encounters happened, there is plenty of proof of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein... For some, it might be guilt by association."

As mentioned by Giuffre's attorney David Boies to NBC News, Prince Andrew's initial request to dismiss the case did nothing, anyway: "We already requested a jury trial so that would have happened no matter what he said."