Attorney Alan Dershowitz made a comparison to Hamas while reacting to being named in a newly unsealed batch of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The documents being unsealed are part of a now-settled 2015 lawsuit filed against Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate and former girlfriend of Epstein’s, by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre.
Giuffre had accused Dershowitz, Epstein’s former attorney, of being one of her abusers in a separate lawsuit, but she retracted the claim and dropped the lawsuit in November 2022. Dershowitz consistently denied any sexual contact with Giuffre and allegations of wrongdoing.
Epstein, a financier known for associating with celebrities and politicians, killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping recruit and abuse Epstein’s victims.
Dershowitz told Newsweek on Wednesday that he hoped “every single document will be made public because I have nothing to hide.”
Rob Kim/Getty Images
According to one of the documents, Epstein allegedly “forced then-minor Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations” with Dershowitz. “In addition to being a participant in the abuse of Jane Doe #3 and other minors, Dershowitz was an eye-witness to the sexual abuse of many other minors by Epstein and several of Epstein’s co-conspirators.”
The documents “prove my innocence,” Dershowitz said in a statement to People. “The woman who initially accused me subsequently stated that she may have misidentified me and she withdrew her lawsuit against me.”
Also on Wednesday, he raised eyebrows when he criticized those who have condemned associates of Epstein, but have not, in his eyes, been sufficiently critical of Hamas over the sexual violence that reportedly occurred during the October 7 assault on Israel.
“I understand all the feminist groups and the radicals who think this is the worst thing in the world that anybody ever had any contact with Jeffrey Epstein,” Dershowitz said during an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity.
“Where are all those radical feminists when it comes to the Hamas rapes of young Jewish girls, sexual abuse, beheadings? They are quiet, they are silent! The incredible hypocrisy of the MeToo movement. Me too, except if you’re a Jew.”
He went on to say that he wanted “a list of all the radical feminists who are pushing hard” to get the names of Epstein’s associates unsealed.
“I want to know, how many of them have ever actually condemned Hamas for the rapes that we now know occurred and the murders that occurred? How many have been silent? And how many, like the National Lawyers Guild, have actually approved of what Hamas did?” Dershowitz said.
He is “thrilled that all these papers have come out,” he said.
“I went to court and I asked for everything to come out because I knew that I had done nothing wrong, and the papers would exculpate me. What I only worry about is that maybe the judges withheld certain documents. I want to make sure every single document comes out, including the documents that casts doubt on the credibility of some of the accusers and some of the accused. The public has the right to see everything.”
Is this a defense or admission?
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) January 4, 2024
Some on social media called Dershowitz’s comments “deflection” and “whataboutism.”
“Is this a defense or admission?” wrote Adam Parkhomenko, a Democratic strategist, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“We can be appalled about more than one thing at a time,” one person wrote.
Another wrote: “As whataboutery goes, this is taking it beyond the most extreme of extremes…”
Another person told Dershowitz that “it is legitimate that people ask you about Epstein if your name is listed in his file and you represented him and religion has nothing to do with that.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.