Guilt by Accusation

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Guilt by Accusation Page 5

by Alan Dershowitz


  As previously proven, Giuffre also lied about being underage when she claims to have been trafficked. Her own employment records and a manuscript of a book she wrote prove that she lied about being below the age of consent when she said she had sex with prominent people. She originally said that she vividly remembered spending her “sweet 16: birthday celebration with Epstein,”28 but her employment records prove—and she now concedes—that she didn’t meet Epstein until a year after she turned 16, and that she was well above the age of consent when she claims to have had sex with Epstein’s friends. (Appendix G)

  In her first interview about Epstein at the beginning of 2011 with the Daily Mail—the closest in time to the alleged events and before she was “pressured” by her lawyers—this is what she said: “Basically I was training to be a prostitute for him and his friends who shared his interest in young girls . . . After about two years he started to ask me to ‘entertain his friends.’”29 (Emphasis added.) This chronology would put her close to 19—well above the age of consent—when she entertained her first “clients” on Epstein’s island, not 16 as she first mendaciously claimed.

  Giuffre’s lawyers had to be aware of her history of lying when they vouched for her credibility by submitting perjured affidavits by her falsely accusing me of sexual misconduct with her.

  On October 16th, 2019, Federal Judge Loretta Preska disqualified the entire Boies law firm from representing Giuffre in her defamation suit against me on several grounds, including that Boies will be called as a witness and asked about his recorded admission that Giuffre was “wrong . . . simply wrong” in accusing me. She found that disqualification was “clearly required” under the law.

  18 Sires was not the only lawyer to offer assistance when they heard that I was being accused. Dozens of former students, colleagues, even strangers offered to join my legal team. They included former judges, former prosecutors, and one former attorney general of the United States. They were outraged at what they believed was irresponsible behavior by the lawyers representing Giuffre. Ultimately, I put together a core legal team, headed by my friend and colleague Kenneth Sweder, who guided me through the complexities of the multiple litigations I faced as a result of the false accusation.

  19 Madison 92nd Street Associates LLC v. Marriott International, Inc. et al. (S.D.N.Y. Case No. 1:13-cv-00219_.

  20 Robert Frank and Nathan Koppel, “Boies Office Sent Clients to 3rd Firm with Family Ties”, The Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2005; Nathan Koppel, “Judge Orders Probe Into Boies Firm”, The Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2006; Laurie P. Cohen and Robert Frank, “More Boies Clients Used Family Firm”, The Wall Street Journal, August 31, 2005

  21 Steven Davidoff Solomon, “Boies Dual Roles at Theranos Set Up Conflict, New York Times, February 2, 2016

  22 In addition to these and other conflicts, Boies and his firm have been credibly accused of numerous other ethical violations, some of which are catalogued in Appendix A.

  23 New York is a “one-party consent” state, which means New York makes it a crime to record a telephone conversation unless one party to the conversation consents. See N.Y.Penal Law §§ 250.00, 250.05.

  24 Barry Meier, Alan Dershowitz, on the Defense (His Own), New York Times, Dec. 12, 2015.

  25 Sharon Churcher, Teenage Girl Recruited by Paedophile Jeffrey Epstein Reveals How She Twice Met Bill Clinton, Daily Mail, March 5, 2011. See Appendix M.

  26 These memoirs were recently unsealed and are available at https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6251258/Virginia-Roberts-Memoir.pdf. This passage can be found on p. 109. See Appendix G.

  27 Sharon Churcher, Teenage Girl Recruited by Paedophile Jeffrey Epstein Reveals How She Twice Met Bill Clinton, Daily Mail, March 5, 2011.

  28 Giuffre’s Memoirs, p. 40 (“I spent my sweet 16th birthday on [Epstein’s] island in the Caribbean . . .”). See Appendix G.

  29 Tom Leonard, Prince Andrew Risks Losing Ambassador Job As Girl in Underage Sex Case Reveals Meeting Him, Daily Mail, March 2, 2011.

  CHAPTER 4

  The Chronology of a Frame-up; The Newly Unsealed Emails and Manuscript

  The recent unsealing of documentary evidence has made it clear how Giuffre’s story about me evolved—from never having met or having sex with me, which is the truth, into a false accusation of having sex with me in numerous places I couldn’t have been during the relevant time period. We have evidence that Giuffre never accused me of having had sex with her until she met her lawyers, who must have told her she would get a big payday if she accused me. Her best friend, a woman named Rebecca Boylan, has said in a recorded statement that she “never heard [Giuffre] mention [Dershowitz] as someone with whom she had sex,” and that Giuffre didn’t want to include my name in the legal pleadings even after she retained her lawyers, but she “felt pressured” by her lawyers to name me. (Appendix C)

  During the two-year period she was with Epstein—between 2000 (when she was seventeen) and 2002 (when she was nineteen)—she told several people that she was being paid to have sex with prominent individuals. Among the people she told was her then-boyfriend, Anthony Figueroa. He, too has confirmed that she never mentioned me as someone with whom she’d had sex. In a sworn statement, Figueroa stated that:

  “Virginia only mentioned Alan Dershowitz, as she was listing famous people who were friends of Jeffrey Epstein. I remember during this same conversation she listed certain famous people like President Clinton, Kevin Spacey, and Chris Tucker. Virginia described Mr. Dershowitz as ‘OJ Simpson’s lawyer.’ She did not say she had ever had any physical contact with him. As I have said before, she had never mentioned anything about them having sex, or brought up anything like that. The first time I heard about Virginia’s sexual allegations against Mr. Dershowitz was after the court filing in January 2015 when the media started to contact me for interviews.” (Appendix D)

  Moreover, Epstein’s house manager during the relevant time period, Juan Alessi, swore under oath that he never saw me in the presence of “young girls” and never saw me do “anything improper.” (Appendix E)

  * * *

  When Giuffre was interviewed by federal agents in 2013, she accused others but not me. (Appendix F) Moreover, there is documentary proof that the U.S. Attorney’s office did not consider me to be an accomplice to Mr. Epstein’s alleged crimes: the Assistant U.S. Attorney listed the people involved in criminal activity in the Epstein matter but I was not among them. Had there been any suspicion or any involvement on my part in sexual improprieties, prosecutors would never have permitted me to serve as Epstein’s lawyer and participate in negotiating the plea bargain.

  The first time my name was publicly mentioned as someone to whom Giuffre was trafficked was in the legal filings on December 30, 2014,30 months after Giuffre met Boies and her other lawyers, who, according to Rebecca Boylan, pressured her into including me in order to obtain money from Leslie Wexner, the billionaire owner of Victoria’s Secret and other companies. We now have smoking-gun documents produced in the defamation lawsuit between Giuffre and Maxwell that had been placed under seal but have now been unsealed. Here is the story of this effort by Giuffre’s lawyers to suppress the damning truth about how Giuffre came to falsely accuse me.

  During the defamation suit between me and Giuffre’s lawyers, Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell, I subpoenaed all emails from and to Giuffre that mentioned my name. The judge ordered all such emails to be produced, but they were improperly withheld. Giuffre was then directly asked whether there were any such emails. With her lawyer sitting next to her, she brazenly lied under oath and swore there weren’t. Well, there were. And they were dynamite. They have now been unsealed and it is obvious why she and her lawyers failed to disclose them.

  The first email was in May 2011, from Giuffre to a journalist named Sharon Churcher, who was helping her sell a book she was writing about her sexual experiences in connection with Epstein. This is what the first email said:

  “Hi, Sharon, . . . Were[sic] drawing
up a contract through her agent right now and getting busy to meet my deadline. Just wondering if you have any information on you from when you and I were doing interviews about the JE story . . . I wanted to put the names of some of the assholes, oops, I meant to say, pedo’s that J.E. sent me to. With everything going on, my brain feels like mush and it would be a great deal of help!”

  Churcher responded with the following email:

  “Don’t forget Alan Dershowitz . . . J.E.’s buddy and lawyer . . . good name for your pitch as he repped Claus von Bulow and a movie was made about that case . . . title was Reversal of Fortune. We all suspect Alan is a pedo and tho no proof of that, you probably met him when he was hanging put[sic] w JE.”31

  Giuffre’s reply did not dispute Churcher’s “no proof” statement. All it said was, “Thanks again Shazza, I’m bringing down the house with this book.”32

  Giuffre then followed Churcher’s advice and put me in her manuscript. But—and here is the key—she put me in the manuscript as someone with whom she did NOT have sex. This is significant because in the same manuscript she included detailed descriptions of the people with whom she says she DID have sex. (Appendix G) These men included included “A powerful Senator George Mitchell,” “Alexandra Cousteau, the granddaughter [of] Jack [sic] Cousteau,” “Glena and Eva,” “Ron Eppinger,” and “A professor named Stephen _____.” His last name has been redacted from the unsealed material, but I know who he is. This is how Giuffre described her encounter with him, as her second client:

  “Two weeks later, as if Jeffrey was trying to lighten my spirits, he told me I would be going to his island to meet a new client. He is a Harvard Professor, named Stephen [redacted]. I would be spending two days with him showing him around the island, dining with him, and treating him to a massage whenever he wanted. Without Jeffrey even verbalizing the need to have sex with him, he told me to keep him happy like I had my first client. . . .

  Stephen was a quirky little man with white hair and a mad scientist look about him. . . . We made our acquaintances and he looked as if he was tripping over himself with words, obviously delighted with his company and location for the weekend. I showed him around as Jeffrey had asked and took him on an adventurous quad bike ride around the small curvy paths, leading the way and letting loose my hair, doing something that gave me a natural high instead of the prescription one. The sights alone were breathtaking from the mountainous peaks of the untouched parts of the island, we sat at a cliff and just sat there, not saying a word to each other besides to compliment the sights mother nature that appealed to us. I didn’t feel as if I owed this stranger anything but what was expected of me by Jeffrey and I could be polite, I just couldn’t be myself. . . .

  We both met at six pm for dinner on the outside veranda. . . We both drank the red wine supplied on the table and it seemed to warm me up on the breezy night. By the time dinner was served and another red wine bottle later, he seemed to get funnier. I made fun of his tousled hair and he poked me for my skinny legs, calling me a wanna-be-anorexic. When dessert was brought out, he asked if he could receive one of the delightful massages he has been hearing about from Jeffrey. I gulped more red wine down and sweetly complied with his offer, dreading the moment I’d have to see his naked body let alone touch it. I asked the housekeeper Kathy that had been serving us that night to please have someone set up a massage bed in one of the cabana’s. I went to my room to down a few Xanax, telling him I wanted to freshen up after dinner, but to meet me in his cabana in twenty minutes or so. I was ready to go as I had said, twenty minutes later, with the effects of the tablets mixed with the red wine, and I would be free not to feel anything. He was still dressed when I got in the cabana obviously not accustomed to this and a lot shyer than what I had been used to, I told him he’d need to undress and lie face down on the table, putting a towel to cover his bare bottom to prevent him feeling embarrassed during the massage. I gave the massage my earnest as I always had, and quickly got through having intercourse with him. Not wanting to make any foreplay or anything extravagant out of it, I let him think that’s as good as it got, and by the smile on his face, I thought I had done enough.

  The next day I took him down to the beach for a real massage under tiki-hut on the water’s edge. It was one of Jeffrey’s favorite places to have a massage, as he droned out to the sound of the waves and my gentle therapeutic strokes. Afterwards we had lunch back at the main villa and went back down to the beach to swim out to the water trampoline about one hundred meters off the dock. He didn’t do any bounding around or anything like that. It was just a good base point for a rest spot after a long swim. What was really cool about it though, was you could see through the mesh and watch fish swimming underneath. . . .

  I asked him if he’d like another massage before I went to bed. He just wanted to stay up watching movies in Jeffrey’s theatre room. . . . The next morning, we were both catching a flight from St. Thomas and we had no time for anything other than breakfast and packing, which saved me from having to be too polite as we said our good-bye’s from the terminal in the airport, both hurriedly off in separate directions, thankfully. I arrived back in Palm Beach, only to be told to catch another flight the next day to N.Y.C. where Jeffrey would fix me up the money he owed me for treating his colleague out to an entertaining weekend.”

  In her manuscript Giuffre also described sexual encounters with an MIT professor, several politicians and businessmen. (Appendix G) If she had had sex with me, she surely would have included me in this catalogue of alleged criminals, especially since the journalist had told her that including me would help her pitch the book. But here is everything she wrote about me:

  “Alan Dershowitz, his colleague in finances and personal solicitor, a bird of the same feather I had seen hanging around the island and Jeffrey’s Manhattan mansion, more and more these days. Alan’s taste for the young and beautiful was a bias [sic] for a blooming business relationship between him and Jeffrey. After an explicit session of Jeffrey’s vulgar pilgrimage into my body, we were interrupted by a knock at the door by Jeffrey’s good friend, Alan. . . .. Opening the bedroom door and letting Alan inside they began to converse about business immediately, right in front of me. Jeffrey started to tell Alan what needed to be done while he jostled some notes down quickly. I peeked my head from underneath the covers thinking they were too wrapped up in their work to notice me get up and dressed, and Jeffrey turned back to me and told me to just stay there this would only take a second. Going back to Alan he turned his focus back into work and hustled out a few more orders before letting Alan out of the door and returning his attention to me.”33

  Giuffre made up this entire story. My records prove that I was never on the island during the time she knew Epstein. I had no “business relationship” with Epstein—this was years before I became his defense attorney—and was never in his bedroom. But the crucial point is that Giuffre did not make up a false claim that she had sex with me, even when she was inventing a story about seeing me. This is especially striking since she said I had a “taste for the young and beautiful,” and Churcher had said that “we all suspect Alan is a pedo.” If I had done anything that confirmed these false suspicions, Giuffre would surely have included it.

  Why would she write in detail about a sexual encounter with an obscure professor named Stephen whom no one has ever heard of, if she could help pitch her book by including a sexual encounter with a far more famous professor? This only plausible answer is that it never occurred to her to invent a sexual encounter with me that had never taken place—until she felt pressure to include me by her lawyers. She only began to invent the false sex accusation against me after she met with lawyers and learned that she could profit from including me. Even then she didn’t want to name me, because she knew it wasn’t true, but succumbed to the pressure from her lawyers and agreed to make up the story about me. She then essentially substituted me for Professor Stephen, whom she had described in the manuscript, and perhaps for others. To
make her story consistent, she then had to testify that she never had sex with Professor Stephen, despite having vividly described her days with him in the manuscript. She surely could not have forgotten spending so much time with her second client.

  This chronology is confirmed by what she told the FBI, her former boyfriend and her best friend before she was pressured by her lawyers: namely, that I was not among the men she was accusing. It has also been confirmed by Sharon Churcher—the first journalist to interview Giuffre back in 2011. In Churcher’s numerous interviews, Giuffre never included me in the “laundry list” of men with whom she said she had sex. That’s why Churcher wrote that there was “no proof” that I did anything wrong. Churcher has now said that she doesn’t believe Giuffre’s accusations against me and that I am “a victim” of a false accusation influenced by Giuffre’s lawyers and/or money.34

  Giuffre has now come up with another lie to “explain” why these damning emails and manuscript do not prove that she made up the entire story of having sex with me. She claims that her manuscript was intended to be a “fictionalized account”—a “novel”—rather than a factual account of what actually happened.35 This is utter nonsense, as proved by the indisputable fact that the account she provided to the FBI—under penalty of lying to law enforcement officials—precisely paralleled what she wrote in her manuscript. She also asked Churcher for the actual “names” of the “pedo’s that J.D. sent me too.” She then included the actual names of those she was accusing—and did not include me. If the manuscript was intended to be fiction, rather than fact, why would she risk defamation suits by naming those she was accusing? And if it was fiction, why was she willing to falsely accuse those who she named? Another lie by a woman who truly doesn’t understand the differences between fiction and fact.

 

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