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A long, convoluted series of cases left in Jeffrey Epstein’s wake has come to an end. Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, alleged that Epstein forced her to have sex with a number of men while she was a girl. One of the men she identified was Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s former lawyer (who bizarrely said he thought Epstein should’ve gotten a better deal after Epstein’s full operation came to light — like, dude, read the room). Giuffre now admits that over the course of her traumatic ordeal she “may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz.”
This triggered a wave of dismissals yesterday. Giuffre’s allegations had prompted Dershowitz to call her a liar and demand she sue him for defamation if she thought he was wrong. So Giuffre sued Dershowitz for defamation. Then Dershowitz sued Giuffre for defamation. Somewhere along the way we had to hear about Dershowitz’s underwear and perfect sex life giving the rest of America an infliction of emotional distress claim that mercifully no one brought. Then Dershowitz sought to get Boies Schiller disqualified from representing Giuffre — which took a few tries to get filed right — on the grounds that the Harvard law professor claimed David Boies was extorting him. Giuffre hired Chuck Cooper to replace Boies and then Dershowitz came out and said Boies and his firm were “a RICO”… so Boies sued Dershowitz for defamation.
Now the whole series of lawsuits have been dropped with no money changing hands in the whole web.
Dershowitz had accused Boies of engaging in an extortion plot and in suborning perjury. Boies countersued Dershowitz for defamation.
“I agree with Mr. Dershowitz and Ms. Giuffre that the time has come to end this litigation and move on,” Boies said. “I know that Alan Dershowitz has suffered greatly from the allegation of sexual abuse — an allegation that he has consistently, and vehemently, denied.”
Boies added: “I appreciate Mr. Dershowitz’s recognition that I was not engaged in an extortion plot or in suborning perjury.”
In his statement, Dershowitz said he now believes that his allegations against Boies “were mistaken.”
All of the parties said in a joint statement that the resolution does not involve the payment of any money “by anyone or anything else.”
And with one blow, they’ve severed this Gordian knot of litigation.
Unfortunately, this still won’t make Dershowitz popular on Martha’s Vineyard.
Epstein victim drops her lawsuit against lawyer Alan Dershowitz [NBC News]
Joe 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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