In Court Filing, Alan Dershowitz Calls Sex Ring Allegations ‘Outrageously False’

(Photo by Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv.)

Alan Dershowitz responded to a salacious court filing with a court filling of his own. (Photo by Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv.)

By Trevor Aaronson
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Accused in a civil court filing last week of having sex with an underage girl, criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz responded with a court filing of his own — calling the allegations that he was part of an international underage sex ring run by billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein “outrageously false.”

The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting published a story on January 2 about the allegations made by an anonymous woman — identified as Jane Doe #4 — represented by lawyers Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell.

Dershowitz, represented by Miami lawyer Kendall Coffey, filed a motion for limited intervention in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, asking the court to allow him to submit “a motion to strike the allegations against him.”

Dershowitz’s motion, which specifically mentions the FCIR story that was published in the Miami Herald, says:

To the great detriment of Prof. Dershowitz, and as Plaintiffs’ counsel surely anticipated, the contemptible allegations against Prof. Dershowitz and others have created a media firestorm. Over the weekend of January 3 and 4, 2015, major media outlets — including the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Jerusalem Post — picked up the story and highlighted the most libelous allegations against Prof. Dershowitz.

UPDATE, 7:15 p.m.: Lawyers Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell, who represent the Jane Doe victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged crimes, have filed a defamation lawsuit against Alan Dershowitz in state court in Broward County. Edwards and Cassell allege Dershowitz “initiated a massive public media assault on [their] reputation and character.” The Wall Street Journal posted the lawsuit.

Read Dershowitz’s motion and declaration