Alan Dershowitz says ‘a lot of people hung out with Epstein,’ claims document dump will exonerate him
Jeffrey Epstein’s former attorney and friend Alan Dershowitz defended the late multimillionaire sex offender’s associates, whose names will soon be released as part of a court ruling, saying: “None of us knew about his private life that he kept so secret.”
The one-time Harvard Law School professor said in an interview with NewsNation’s Leland Vittert Tuesday that no one should be automatically convicted in the court of public opinion simply for showing up on the Epstein list.
“You could judge them for having shown bad judgment, but you can’t conclude that any accusations against them are true without hearing the evidence,” the legal scholar argued.
More than 150 people with ties to the disgraced financier, previously known only as “John Does” and “Jane Does,” are expected to be unmasked for the first time in court records that a federal judge had ordered unsealed last month.
“There are some people who may be ashamed of the fact that they hung out with Epstein, but remember, a lot of people hung out with Epstein before he was convicted,” Dershowitz said.
The 85-year-old lawyer suggested that the judge who ordered the release of the names was “selective” in what she agreed to make public, which he maintained was “unfair.”
“I want everything out, every document, every piece of paper, half-truths or lies,” Dershowtiz told Vitters. “And I wanted them out for personal reasons because I know that they would prove what I’ve said from day one that I did nothing wrong.”
What we know about the Jeffrey Epstein list of 170 associates
- On Wednesday, documents were released naming 170 associates of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The list included Michael Jackson, magician David Copperfield, Stephen Hawking, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former President Bill Clinton — who an Epstein victim said “likes them young, referring to girls.”
- Disgraced royal Prince Andrew, a known friend of Epstein, was named in the documents and was previously sued by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who accused Andrew of sexual misconduct toward her. According to one royal family expert, the Firm “will stand beside” the Duke of York “no matter what.”
- Epstein’s former attorney and friend Alan Dershowitz defended the late multimillionaire sex offender’s associates, saying: “None of us knew about his private life that he kept so secret.” Dershowitz, who is on the list, added that no one should be automatically convicted in the court of public opinion simply for showing up in court documents.
- Epstein’s brother, Mark Epstein, told The Post that the ex-business mogul said he could have upended the 2016 election over what he knew about both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: “Here’s a direct quote: ‘If I said what I know about both candidates, they’d have to cancel the election.’ That’s what Jeffrey told me in 2016.”
- Only some of the 170 names and their relationships to Epstein have been released. The remainder of the documents will likely become public record throughout the next week.
Dershowitz stressed that Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring who previously accused the lawyer of sexually abusing her two decades ago, in November agreed to drop a defamation lawsuit against him, after conceding that she “may have made a mistake” when she named him as one of the men with whom she was forced to have sex.
“And the woman who accused me later admitted that she may have misidentified me, confused me with someone else, so I wanted everything out right from the beginning because I have nothing to hide,” Dershowitz said.
Follow along with everything we’ve found out about Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.
But the former professor said he understands why some people would not want their names tied to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 in a federal jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
“Any association with Jeffrey Epstein is very, very negative,” Dershowitz noted. “Anybody who knew Epstein, whether you knew him before or after, people say, ‘Oh my God, you knew Epstein, you must have done something wrong.’ That doesn’t necessarily follow.”
Dershowitz appeared several times on the flight logs of Epstein’s infamous “Lolita Express” jet, along with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and former US Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine).
The logs were released in 2021 during the high-profile trial of Epstein’s girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
