Virginia Giuffre, a sufferer of Jeffrey E. Epstein who for years maintained that the legislation professor Alan Dershowitz had sexually assaulted her when she was a young person, settled a defamation lawsuit towards Mr. Dershowitz on Tuesday and stated that she might need “made a mistake” in accusing him.
In a joint assertion saying the settlement, Ms. Giuffre stated, “I’ve lengthy believed that I used to be trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to Alan Dershowitz. Nonetheless, I used to be very younger on the time, it was a really hectic and traumatic surroundings, and Mr. Dershowitz has from the start constantly denied these allegations.
“I now acknowledge I’ll have made a mistake in figuring out Mr. Dershowitz,” her assertion stated.
The joint assertion introduced the top of litigation between Ms. Giuffre and Mr. Dershowitz — who had additionally sued her — in addition to of two different lawsuits between Mr. Dershowitz and the lawyer David Boies that stemmed from Ms. Giuffre’s accusation.
Ms. Giuffre had sued Mr. Dershowitz on the grounds that he had made defamatory statements about her after her accusation. Her lawyer wouldn’t touch upon the assertion however confirmed that the settlement had been reached. A doc confirming that Ms. Giuffre had agreed to dismiss her case was filed in U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan Tuesday afternoon.
“She has suffered a lot by the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, and I commend her work combating the evil of intercourse trafficking,” Mr. Dershowitz stated of Ms. Giuffre in his personal assertion.
And Mr. Boies, who has represented Ms. Giuffre, although not on this matter, stated that “the time has come to finish this litigation” and that Mr. Dershowitz “has suffered enormously from the allegation of sexual abuse made towards him — an allegation that he has constantly and vehemently denied.”
The phrases of Ms. Giuffre’s take care of Mr. Dershowitz weren’t instantly clear on Tuesday, although the assertion and the courtroom submitting stated that no funds have been made by any of the events.
The settlement of the defamation lawsuit, which was filed in 2019, and Ms. Giuffre’s accompanying assertion represented a outstanding turnabout for Mr. Dershowitz, who has been making an attempt to resuscitate his reputation since Ms. Giuffre first made her declare publicly in 2014. Her accusations towards Mr. Epstein have been corroborated.
A longtime good friend of Mr. Epstein, Mr. Dershowitz defended the financier after he was first arrested and charged with intercourse trafficking, attacking his consumer’s younger accusers, and in 2008, helped to win a lenient plea deal for Mr. Epstein. After pleading responsible to 2 prostitution expenses in state courtroom, Mr. Epstein served a few yr in a Florida jail, leaving confinement six days per week to work out of his workplace.
The plea deal was removed from the top of the matter. It led to extra litigation, together with a 2014 lawsuit that sought to have the deal thrown out for violating a federal legislation that required that non-prosecution agreements be shared with the victims of crimes. (A federal decide later determined that prosecutors had damaged the legislation by not sharing the settlement.)
As a part of that lawsuit, Ms. Giuffre first publicly detailed her accusation of Mr. Dershowitz, saying that he had intercourse along with her when she was underage. Her declare prompted livid denials from the lawyer, who till then had been recognized for high-profile defenses of O.J. Simpson, Claus von Bülow, Mike Tyson and others.
The murmurs about Mr. Epstein continued, spurred by reporting from The Miami Herald and new consideration prompted by the #MeToo motion. In 2019, federal prosecutors in New York revived the case towards him, charging him with intercourse trafficking. Earlier than he could possibly be tried, Mr. Epstein dedicated suicide in August 2019.
By then, Ms. Giuffre’s identify had turn out to be extensively recognized. Within the months after Mr. Epstein was charged, a trove of sealed authorized paperwork associated to a defamation lawsuit that Ms. Giuffre filed towards Ghislaine Maxwell grew to become public. Ms. Maxwell, Mr. Epstein’s longtime girlfriend, was later convicted of child sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ms. Giuffre additionally sued one other affiliate of Mr. Epstein, Prince Andrew of the British royal household, whom she accused of raping her when she was a young person. That lawsuit was settled in February. Prince Andrew didn’t admit guilt; he released a statement saying that he “regrets his affiliation with Epstein and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and different survivors in standing up for themselves and others.”
Earlier than Mr. Epstein’s 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell, Ms. Giuffre sued him too, receiving $500,000 in a settlement.
The deal ended each pairs of lawsuits: Ms. Giuffre’s defamation go well with towards Mr. Dershowitz; Mr. Dershowitz’s defamation lawsuit towards Ms. Giuffre; Mr. Boies’s defamation lawsuit towards Mr. Dershowitz, filed in 2019; and Mr. Dershowitz’s countersuit towards Mr. Boies, filed early the next yr.
The fits between Mr. Boies and Mr. Dershowitz have been associated to Ms. Giuffre’s accusations. Mr. Boies sued Mr. Dershowitz for saying that Mr. Boies had manufactured the allegations as a part of a plot to extort cash from the billionaire Leslie Wexner, whose funds have been managed by Mr. Epstein. Mr. Dershowitz reiterated these accusations in his January 2021 lawsuit.
These fits have been transferring forward, with Mr. Boies questioning Mr. Dershowitz underneath oath in late September in a session that Mr. Dershowitz minimize off abruptly, citing well being issues.
In a follow-up interview, Mr. Boies stated that whereas he stood by his assertion about Mr. Dershowitz, “My accusations towards him stand unretracted, and his allegations towards me at the moment are retracted.”
Mr. Dershowitz has lengthy been a authorized superstar. He first entered the highlight when, at 28, he grew to become the youngest professor ever to work at Harvard Regulation Faculty.
His profile grew in tandem along with his well-known shoppers, and he appeared in protection of the trial of Patricia Hearst, a kidnapped heiress, and Mr. Von Bülow. The Danish-born socialite was convicted of getting tried to homicide his spouse however appealed efficiently with Mr. Dershowitz’s assist. Mr. Dershowitz’s 1985 guide concerning the case, “Reversal of Fortune,” contributed to his rising fame.
In most circumstances, Mr. Dershowitz welcomed public battle; a champion of Israel, he appeared at public debates on the country’s politics and relished the (usually destructive) consideration that got here with illustration of his well-known shoppers.
However Ms. Giuffre’s accusation, although it was by no means confirmed and no prison expenses ever arose from it, was associated to Mr. Dershowitz’s personal life somewhat than his work.
After Ms. Giuffre first made her accusation public, within the 2014 lawsuit, Mr. Dershowitz advised The Occasions that he regretted taking Mr. Epstein’s case “in gentle of the whole lot that has occurred.”