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Dershowitz Wanted A Trial Over Sex Trafficking Accusations -- He's Getting One

Boies Schiller brings powerhouse talent to bear in the fallout of sex-trafficking matter.

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(Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu)

Paragraph 22 of the complaint says it all.

Last month, Harvard Law’s Alan Dershowitz proclaimed, “I hereby accuse my false accusers of committing the felony of perjury and challenge them to sue me for defamation.” As Paragraph 22 of a complaint filed today in the Southern District of New York put it:

Mr. Dershowitz now has what he claims to have been looking for.

For the last several years, Dershowitz has faced allegations that his best buddy and ultimate “Florida Man” Jeffrey Epstein — a billionaire who used his wealth to lure underaged girls into a sex trafficking operation — loaned out his victims to have sex with Dershowitz.

Boies Schiller, in papers signed by Sigrid McCawley, with assistance from Meredith Schultz, has now sued Dershowitz for defamation on behalf of Virginia (Roberts) Guiffre. Dershowitz has publicly called Guiffre a liar and extortionist based on the Epstein victim’s claim that Dershowitz had sex with her as part of Epstein’s scheme.

This isn’t the first time Dershowitz has tangled with Boies over the Epstein matter. Boies has worked with Guiffre and another victim, Sarah Ransome, since 2014. Combined with the work the firm did for Legal Momentum contributing to the shutdown of Backpage for facilitating trafficking and exploitation, work on behalf of victims of sex trafficking and sex abuse has been one of Boies Schiller’s largest pro bono commitments.

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Ransome previously sued Dershowitz for defamation for calling her a liar for claiming that Epstein directed her to have sex with Dershowitz while she was a minor. In that case, Dershowitz claimed that Boies was the “perpetrator” of a scheme to discredit him. That case settled on confidential terms. According to the present complaint, what that settlement did not include was any statement that the victims were even potentially mistaken in identifying Dershowitz despite the professor’s entreaties to include such a claim.

With Epstein back in the news following Alex Acosta’s elevation to Trump’s Labor Secretary — renewing focus on Acosta’s sweetheart deal for Epstein — and the court’s February ruling that it was a “material omission” for Acosta and his office to mislead the victims about the nature of the deal, Dershowitz is back in the press denouncing the women who’ve identified him and, in a case of “be careful what you wish for,” earning himself a defamation suit.

Some ATL readers may remember when former federal district judge Paul Cassell and Bradley Edwards raised the prospect of Dershowitz’s involvement in Epstein’s criminality years ago as part of a Crime Victims’ Rights Act petition on the part of young women that Acosta never bothered to consult when he gave Epstein a Non-Pros for the myriad more serious charges he faced. In pursuing that petition, Judge Cassell and Edwards ultimately sued Dershowitz for defamation as the professor blasted them in the media. After the deposition where he labeled the claims a billion-dollar extortion scheme, he settled on confidential terms. He claims, not unlike his television hero Donald Trump, that this settlement exonerated him. Judge Cassell and Edwards disagree:

he has been making public statements suggesting that he has prevailed in the lawsuit and that the terms of the settlement exonerate him of any wrongdoing. Those statements are at best misleading. It is a mistake for anyone to conclude based upon Mr. Dershowitz’s statements that the case against him was abandoned due to lack of factual support.

Undeterred by public statements like this, Dershowitz has maintained his innocence and repeatedly branded the women who have tied him to Epstein’s scheme as liars and extortionists and demanded a trial to once and for all prove his innocence. It’s a demand he’s not lived up to according to the complaint:

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As described above, Dershowitz has also repeatedly asserted that he wanted to have a trial to establish his innocence. By contrast, he paid to settle the case that would have provided that trial. He even lied about his being willing to waive the statute of limitations so that Roberts could sue him for sex abuse — a lie almost immediately exposed when he was promptly asked to do so and, equally promptly refused.

Despite these efforts to keep a trial that will probe “the truth of the matter” at bay, Dershowitz can’t avoid it anymore. Just what he’s been asking for.

(Full complaint available on the next page.)

Earlier: Settlement Reached In Litigation Between Alan Dershowitz, Paul Cassell, And Bradley Edwards
Dersh Deposed: Alan Dershowitz Accuses Former Federal Judge Of Billion-Dollar Extortion Scheme
Alan Dershowitz Thinks ‘Black Lives Matter’ Is Anti-Semitic, Sticks Up For Steve Bannon

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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