By Dan Murphy
Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, now jailed on a slew of charges for sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York, was recently in Manhattan Federal Court for an appearance as federal prosecutors – including Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, who grew up in Yonkers – appeared in the courtroom with Epstein’s defense lawyers, and sitting in the gallery was noted Westchester attorney David Boies.
Boies, known nationally for his work for Al Gore during the 2000 presidential election and his work for the government in their anti-trust case against Microsoft, had a public relations fall from grace last year when he represented Harvey Weinstein, and hired an Israeli investigation unit to find dirt on the accusers who broke open the #metoo movement.
Boies is now on the right side of the public discourse about the 66-year-old Epstein’s perverse actions of having sex and raping teenage girls over the course of two decades in Florida and New York. Boies, the co-founding partner of the law firm Boies Schiller and Flexner, BSF, whose house and law office are both located in Armonk, in the Town of North Castle, represents at least three of Epstein’s victims and has received calls from several more alleged victims of Epstein.
One of Boise’s clients is Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has accused Epstein of forcing her to have sex with him and many others, most notably Prince Andrew Duke or York, and noted attorney Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz, who represented Epstein as part of a legal team that was able to win Epstein a sweetheart deal back in 2008, has vehemently denied the allegations by Giuffre.
The Epstein case has rekindled the decades-old battle between two of America’s greatest attorneys, the 78-year-old Boies and the 80-year-old Dershowitz. When the new charges against Epstein were made, Boise said: “This is a great day for Virginia Giuffre. More than five years ago, she dedicated herself to trying to make sure that she did whatever she could to prevent other young girls from befalling what she befell. And a critically important part of that has been bringing to the attention of the public how significant and dangerous sex trafficking is in this country.
“We hope prosecutors will not stop with Mr. Epstein, because there were many other people who participated with him and made the sex trafficking possible. We hope Mr. Epstein and people who worked with him and enabled him are finally brought to justice, and this looks like an important first step in having that happen.”
Boise added that federal prosecutors in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owns a private island, could open a criminal case there, and that the public spotlight on Epstein now “puts pressure on prosecutors not to turn a blind eye. It’s been a long time coming – it’s been too long coming,” he said.
Boise and his Westchester law firm have represented Giuffre pro bono since 2014. Dershowitz has filed several motions in different states to have Boise removed as counsel representing Giuffre. Those motions have been rejected by the courts, and Giuffre has filed a defamation lawsuit against Dershowitz, based on Dershowitz’s public comments calling her a serial liar, prostitute and unfit mother.
While Dershowitz tries to clear his name of the sexual accusations made against him, one fact is clear. Dershowitz represented Epstein and helped secure a sweetheart deal for him back in 2008 for molesting more than 35 girls in Palm Beach, Fla., from 1999 to 2006.
Epstein was allowed to plead guilty in state court to two prostitution charges and served 13 months in the Palm Beach County Jail, where he was given liberal work release, including permission to use his own valet to pick him up at the jail every day and take him to his office in downtown Palm Beach.
That plea deal that Dershowitz helped secure has resulted in a public outcry and the resignation of Alexander Acosta as the U.S. secretary of labor. Acosta was the U.S. attorney in Florida at the time and signed off on the plea deal for Epstein.
Years after Epstein’s plea deal, several attorneys filed a Crime Victims Rights suit, claiming Epstein’s victims were not consulted before he was given the deal of the century for all of his sex crimes in Florida. Giuffre filed a declaration of part of that suit, and she detailed Epstein’s alleged sex ring that she was a part of.
In that statement, Giuffre claims that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who served as Epstein’s “pimp” and has not been criminally charged, abused minor girls across the country and around the world, and that Epstein loaned his victims out to his famous friends, including Dershowitz and Prince Andrew.
Buckingham Palace denied the charges against Prince Andrew in a statement that read: “It is emphatically denied that HRH The Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. The allegations made are false and without any foundation.”
Dershowitz added, “My only feeling is if she’s lied about me, which I know to an absolute certainty she has, she should not be believed about anyone else.”
Giuffre was also interviewed by the FBI in the first Epstein case. Those interview notes and other court documents, including a list of other alleged sexually perverted friends of Epstein who may have also had sex with underage girls, has yet to be released by the court.
The deal in 2008 included a provision giving immunity to Epstein – and others who were involved in Epstein’s underage sex operation. Many of those co-conspirators have never been identified.
In 2015, Giuffre filed a defamation lawsuit against Maxwell and Dershowitz based on both of them calling her accusations “lies.”
The Miami Herald and other news outlets have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to unseal all pleadings in that case, which was settled in 2017. Paul Cassell, one of Giuffre’s lawyers, told the court that if the records are made public, they “will show that Epstein and Maxwell were trafficking girls to the benefit of his friends, including Mr. Dershowitz.”
In a letter to The Daily Beast, Dershowitz noted: “The accusation by Virginia Roberts Giuffre is the same one she made, and I conclusively disproved, more than four years ago. I produced all my travel and American Express records, which proved that I could not have been, and was not at the places and times she claims to have had sex with me. The former director of the FBI carefully reviewed these records as part of a thorough investigation and concluded that “the totality of the evidence found during the investigation refutes the allegations.”
Another famous Westchester resident had interactions with Jeffrey Epstein during his sexual pedophilia – former President Bill Clinton. In a statement, Clinton’s office wrote: “In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation. Staff, supporters of the foundation, and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip. He had one meeting with Epstein in his Harlem office in 2002, and around the same time made one brief visit to Epstein’s New York apartment with a staff member and his security detail. He’s not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and he has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida.”
But Fox News reported that court documents show that Clinton took at least 26 trips flying aboard Epstein’s private jet, known as the “Lolita Express,” and apparently ditched his Secret Service detail on some of the excursions.
The back-and-forth between Boies and Dershowitz continues, with Dershowitz claiming to have a phone recording of a conversation between he and Boies, in which Boies states that Giuffre “was wrong… simply wrong,” in accusing him.
But Boies said he and the other lawyers thoroughly vetted Giuffre and believed she was credible, and asked Giuffre to take a polygraph test, which she passed.
“In June and July 2015, I had two meetings with Mr. Dershowitz and Mr. Stone and several telephone calls with Mr. Dershowitz, in which Mr. Dershowitz argued that he did not have and could not have had sex with Ms. Giuffre. After extensive consideration of everything Mr. Dershowitz told and showed me, I ultimately concluded that his denials were not credible,’’ Boies said in a 2017 affidavit.
The new allegations against Jeffrey Epstein, filed in the Southern District of New York on July 6, are thanks to one person – Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown, who is a journalistic hero and would not let go of the story and would not let Epstein off the hook.
Brown tracked down more than 60 woman who said they were victims of abuse. Her stories in November 2018, titled “Perversion of Justice,” was the spark that brought the case into the public spotlight and brought other victims forward.
Simply put, investigative journalism makes a difference. Sign up for a subscription to your local paper, or to the Miami Herald, before newspapers become a thing of the past.
And our hopes are that David Boies can use his power as one of the great American attorneys, to find out who else was involved in Epstein’s sexual criminal activities with teenage girls. All of those persons who helped him and who participated need to be brought to justice, or have their names cleared.
