{"id":126015,"date":"2019-07-30T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=126015"},"modified":"2019-07-30T07:00:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T11:00:29","slug":"dershowitz-is-out-of-his-mind-client-jeffrey-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=126015","title":{"rendered":"“Dershowitz is out of his mind!” — Client Jeffrey Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Dershowitz is out of his mind\u2019: Here are 5 disturbing details from a new profile of Epstein\u2019s embattled ex-lawyer<\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

NBCNews<\/p><\/div>\n

Written by Cody Fenwick
\nAlterNet<\/p>\n

\n

Famed defense lawyer and Harvard legal scholar Alan Dershowitz became difficult to avoid in the early days of Donald Trump\u2019s presidency, appearing on nearly every media outlet that would have him to defend the White House as the furor over the Russia investigation boiled over. But he\u2019s now in the media\u2019s eye for his own conduct rather than his commentary, caught in the deluge of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.<\/p>\n

A new profile of\u00a0Dershowitz<\/a>\u00a0published in the New Yorker by Connie Bruck on Monday delves into his past socializing with and providing legal representation for the wealthy financier who stands accused of orchestrating a sex trafficking ring targeting vulnerable underage girls. Dershowitz is tied up not only in the dubious circumstances surrounding Epstein\u2019s sweetheart plea deal reached with federal prosecutors in 2008 but also in the allegations of sexual abuse. At least two of the women, as documented in the profile, who have said they would victims of Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking scheme also say they were directed to have sex with Dershowitz, claims he furiously denies.<\/p>\n

But the profile didn\u2019t just report on the allegations against Dershowitz. It documented his history as a high-profile lawyer and legal thinker, including claims that are particularly troubling given his defense of Epstein and the accusations against. It also found that, while the claims against him aren\u2019t unassailable, his defense of himself has also been riddled with aggression, apparent falsehoods, distortions of fact.<\/p>\n

Here are five disturbing details from the report:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Dershowitz<\/a>\u00a0advocated for the repeal of statutory rape laws in 1997.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bruck reported:<\/p>\n

In a 1997 op-ed in the Los Angeles\u00a0Times<\/em>, he argued against statutory-rape laws, writing, \u201cThere must be criminal sanctions against sex with very young children, but it is doubtful whether such sanctions should apply to teenagers above the age of puberty, since voluntary sex is so common in their age group.\u201d He suggested that fifteen was a reasonable age of consent, no matter how old the partner was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2. While he bills himself as a liberal and a civil libertarian, he often seems just as critical of opponents of racism and misogyny as he is of government power.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For instance, Bruck reported that Dershowitz spoke in favor of decriminalizing prostitution \u2014 but only for the johns, not the women:<\/p>\n

In a 1985 article, in the Gainesville\u00a0Sun<\/em>, Dershowitz proposed that a john \u201cwho occasionally seeks to taste the forbidden fruit of sex for hire\u201d should not be arrested. The nonprofit executive recalled his discussing the idea in class: \u201cHe said, \u2018Prostitutes know what they\u2019re doing\u2014they should be prosecuted. But you shouldn\u2019t ruin the john\u2019s life over that.\u2019 If I had raised my hand to challenge that, I would have been singling myself out as\u2014God forbid\u2014a feminist.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And when his fellow Harvard professors criticized a parody article that mocked a dead feminist, Dershowitz was outraged:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overreaction to the spoof is a reflection of the power of women and blacks to define the content of what is politically correct and incorrect on college and law school campuses,\u201d he wrote. \u201cRadical feminists can accuse all men of being rapists, and radical African-Americans can accuse all whites of being racists, without fear of discipline or rebuke.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

3. To defend Epstein, Dershowitz\u2019s team mercilessly attacked his accusers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He and his team went especially hard against one of Epstein\u2019s most damaging accusers, known as \u201cA.H.\u201d:<\/p>\n

Dershowitz sent Recarey a letter about A.H., containing what he described as a \u201ctroublesome and telling illustration of her character.\u201d He said that he had sent two investigators to speak with her, instructing them to take notes, \u201cbecause we feared that she, an accomplished drama student, might try to mislead them as successfully as she had misled others.\u201d The investigators, he continued, were \u201cquite shocked at the overwhelming, non-stop barrage of profanity\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. from what initially appeared only to be a young woman of slight build and soft demeanor.\u201d He also enclosed snippets from A.H.\u2019s presence on social media. \u201cShe, herself, has chosen to go by the nickname of \u2018pimp juice\u2019 and the site goes on to detail, including photos, her apparent fascination with marijuana,\u201d Dershowitz wrote. (Dershowitz denies gathering information from social media, and says that the letter was composed by someone else in his office, although it bears his signature and is written in the first person.) He suggested that her claims about Epstein were motivated by a desire for money. He publicized the accusations in the\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em>, saying that A.H. \u201chad a long record of lying, theft, and blaming others for her crimes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

4. Asked about Guiffre, who has accused both Epstein and Dershowitz of abuse, he has likewise been vicious:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Using some of the same language that he had employed to describe Epstein\u2019s victims a decade earlier, he called her a \u201cserial liar,\u201d a \u201cprostitute,\u201d and a \u201cbad mother,\u201d who could not be believed \u201cagainst somebody with an unscathed reputation like me.\u201d He insisted that Giuffre had \u201cmade the whole thing up out of whole cloth,\u201d in search of \u201ca big payday.\u201d When a TV reporter in Miami questioned his characterization of Giuffre, a sex-abuse victim, as a \u201cprostitute,\u201d Dershowitz replied, \u201cShe made her own decisions in life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

5. Dershowitz\u2019 defense of himself has been forceful but also filled with holes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As vehemently as Dershowitz has denied the allegations, his defense has been particularly sloppy. It led Epstein to remark of his rhetoric in an email to a friend, according to Bruck, that \u201cDershowitz is out of his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, Dershowitz said Guiffre had \u201cmade her allegations in a statement, rather than in a sworn affidavit\u201d because her lawyers know \u201cif they submit a sworn affidavit they would go to jail.\u201d Shortly thereafter, Guiffre submitted a sworn affidavit.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also made promises in an attempt to bolster his credibility that he fails to keep:<\/p>\n

Dershowitz once offered during an interview to waive any statute that prevented Giuffre\u2019s claims from being tested in court\u2014but when her lawyers asked him to waive it to allow a civil suit, he refused. The only way for Giuffre to test her allegations in court was in a defamation suit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And he has made some claims that are just not true, according to Bruck:<\/p>\n

He has pointed to an unpublished memoir by Giuffre, saying, \u201cIn her manuscript, she says she never had sex with me.\u201d She does not say this. In the memoir, Dershowitz appears in only one passage: He knocks on the door of a bedroom where Epstein has just finished having sex with Giuffre, and Epstein invites him in for a discussion. Giuffre writes, \u201cAlan\u2019s taste for the young and beautiful was the bias [sic] for a blooming business relationship between him and Jeffrey.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When attacking Meghan McCain, who said he was not welcome on \u201cThe View\u201d with such serious allegations against him, he again distorted the facts:<\/p>\n

Dershowitz responded with a column on Newsmax: \u201cIn 2008, according to the New York\u00a0Times<\/em>, Meghan McCain\u2019s own father\u2014the late great Senator John McCain\u2014was accused of sexual misconduct for an alleged relationship with a lobbyist 30 years his junior. I do not recall Meghan McCain calling for her father to be barred from television.\u201d In fact, the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0had reported no accusation of sexual misconduct\u2014just McCain aides\u2019 unconfirmed speculation about an affair.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/www.alternet.org\/2019\/07\/dershowitz-is-out-of-his-mind-here-are-5-disturbing-details-from-a-new-profile-of-epsteins-embattled-ex-lawyer\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Dershowitz is out of his mind\u2019: Here are 5 disturbing details from a new profile of Epstein\u2019s embattled ex-lawyer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}