HUSH PAYOUT CLAIM
Dersh zaps sex vic
Virginia Roberts Giuffre is Jeffrey Epstein’s harshest and most public accuser — and she also secretly pocketed $500,000 from the pedophile financier, new court papers allege.
The bombshell allegation that Giuffre took a cool halfmillion dollars from Epstein is contained in a legal filing by high-powered attorney Alan Dershowitz, although when and precisely why the money would have changed hands is left unstated.
Dershowitz is trying to discredit Giuffre, who has claimed publicly and in court papers that Epstein sex-trafficked her to the attorney when she was a minor.
Dershowitz, 81, has denied those allegations.
Dershowitz’s filing is part of an April 2019 defamation action lodged against him by Giuffre.
It cites a transcript of an 80-minute, 2019 telephone exchange between journalist Sharon Churcher and Manhattan book publisher Tony Lyons, who recorded the conversation — allegedly without Churcher’s knowledge.
During the chat, Churcher, the reporter who in 2011 published the first interview with Giuffre, called her “a big spender,” court documents state.
“She’s spent so much money. Because, you see, Epstein paid her off,” Churcher told Lyons. “She had settled with Epstein . . . She’d taken half a million, I think it was.
“Amazingly, she could break her no-talking agreement because of the First Amendment. You can’t really settle with anyone,” Churcher added.
Lyons has published books by Dershowitz.
Churcher also claimed she believed Giuffre mistook Dershowitz “for another Harvard professor.”
“She never named Alan . . .I think she confused him with someone else,” Churcher said.
Churcher declined to comment.
A lawyer for Giuffre, Charles Cooper, told The Post, “We are looking forward to deposing Ms. Churcher under oath.”