Dershowitz: Duke must be like me and fight sex claims in public
ALAN DERSHOWITZ, the high-profile US lawyer who has denied allegations against him by Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged “sex slave,” said the Duke of York should follow his example and defend himself in public.
Both men have faced claims by Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Mr Dershowitz embarked on an aggressive campaign to refute them. The Duke has taken the approach of releasing just two statements through Buckingham Palace.
Mr Dershowitz told The Daily Telegraph: “I think there will be a lot of pressure on him [the Duke]. I don’t think he has any choice now.
“Now that this has resurfaced, he has to categorically assert his innocence, if he can do that, and if he can produce evidence, he should do that as well.”
Mr Dershowitz was accused by Ms Giuffre of having sex with her while he was representing Epstein. He has denied ever meeting her and publicly accused her of being a “liar”. Last month, Ms Giuffre responded by launching a defamation case against him for libel.
The lawyer said he had met the Duke but never saw him in an “inappropriate situation”.
Asked if the Duke should cooperate with Epstein investigators, Mr Dershowitz,
‘He has to categorically assert his innocence… If he can produce evidence, he should do that’
who defended OJ Simpson and Claus von Bulow, said everybody had an “obligation to contribute to the administration of justice” but it “really depends what the facts are”.
Mr Dershowitz, 80, said he also met Ghislaine Maxwell, who has denied procuring young girls for Epstein, about a “dozen” times.
The Wall Street financier took his own life in a New York prison cell on Aug 10, while awaiting charges of under-age sex trafficking.
Ms Giuffre alleged in court documents that she had sex with the Duke when she was 17. The allegations about the Duke were struck from the court record in 2015 after being described as “immaterial and impertinent” by a judge. The Duke has always denied the allegations and any involvement.
The Duke was accused of flying from New Jersey to the Virgin Islands with Epstein, Ms Maxwell, and Ms Giuffre, on April 11, 2001, in a private jet. The Court Circular placed him in New York on that date. He had no other engagements until April 19 in South Korea.
The allegation was made in a court deposition by pilot David Rodgers.
However, Buckingham Palace said there were “a number of inconsistencies” in the evidence, and that in some cases the Duke had been on a different continent when the pilot indicated he was on Epstein’s jet.