Billionaire's Camp Responds That They Honestly Have No Idea What Dershowitz Is Talking About

There could be more twists before this plays itself out, but it's not off to a good start for Dersh.

Alan Dershowitz’s long-running legal battle may seem complex but that’s mostly because he’s styled it that way. At its root, this is a case about him calling Jeffrey Epstein’s victims “liars” and one of those women, Virginia Giuffre, suing him for defamation. That it’s become a case where he’s disqualified David Boies on the grounds that the woman’s attorney was a fact witness to Dershowitz’s claim that Boies is orchestrating an extortion plot against the Harvard Law professor, resulting in Boies counterclaiming against Dershowitz is all getting further and further from the point: did Dershowitz defame this woman or not?

One side issue Dershowitz has invited to the case is a bid to secure documents and testimony from billionaire Les Wexner, who used to let Epstein handle his finances, hoping to show that Wexner was the victim of an extortion plot orchestrated by Boies and Giuffre supposedly to quell accusations against Wexner which all goes to prove, Dershowitz hopes, that he’s just a victim like countless other men accused of statutory rape just because they happened to be close friends and associates with a pedophile for years. It’s certainly attenuated from the central claim, but it’s a narrative that plays well theatrically. A “conspiracy of silence” amongst rich people who just refuse to go on record? Sure, why not?

But Judge Preska just nixed the seal on correspondence from Wexner’s attorney John Zeiger and there’s a definitive “we don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, please get off our lawn” coming from their side:

While many of these are discovery subjects that should be, in the first instance, explored with Ms. Giuffre and Mr. Boies, Mr. Zeiger did have communications with Mr. Boies and can readily confirm that: no extortion demand was ever made, no settlement was entered into, and not a penny (or other consideration) was ever paid. Just the opposite is true for Mr. Wexner, however. He had no involvement, and thus lacks any personal knowledge relating to, Defendant’s so-called “Extortion Claim.” Mr. Boies, who is in the midst of litigation with Defendant, can readily confirm Mr. Wexner’s lack of involvement without burdening a non-party.

Attorneys can find a way to weasel out of a lot of stuff, but this isn’t equivocal language. These are some very definitive truth claims. It’s hard to imagine any lawyer making these statements if there’s any chance it could come out to be a lie. Wexner also, apparently, offered to provide written testimony confirming this, which Dershowitz rejects in favor of a video deposition.

People can lie, of course, and credibility can be challenged over the course of questioning, but when the Wexner subplot thrived upon the idea that “what does this guy have to hide?” having it come out that his camp was already offering to testify under oath about this stuff as long as it didn’t burden them with hours of videotaped questioning, it looks less like a guy trying to hide something and more like an old man who doesn’t want something interrupting his retirement.

Who knows at this point, but it might well be that Dershowitz had a better story going before we got our first peek into Wexner’s side of things. On the other hand, some outlets are already spinning these documents as “[Wexner] May Finally Have to Explain His Epstein Ties” so it may be too much to hope that people will accept that third-parties have zero appetite for depositions no matter what the circumstances.

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Judge Preska plans to hear argument on whether or not Wexner needs to testify next week.


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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