After Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty Wednesday on five of six sex trafficking counts for her role in procuring young girls for her former boyfriend and serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, BBC News took to the airwaves to analyze the proceedings. And they brought on Alan Dershowitz, notably named by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre as one of the men (she has also claimed Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her) she said Epstein and Maxwell allegedly forced her to have sex with repeatedly when she was underage. Dershowitz has denied the allegations.
Introduced only as a “constitutional lawyer” by the BBC host without any further context or noting any conflict of interest, Dershowitz appeared to use the opportunity to defend his defamation countersuit while questioning Giuffre’s credibility.
“I think the most important thing particularly for British viewers is that the government was very careful who it used as witnesses,” Dershowitz said, alluding to his connection to the case, even though BBC did not. “It did not use as a witness the woman who accused Prince Andrew, accused me, accused many other people because the government didn’t believe she was telling the truth.”
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“In fact she, Virginia Giuffre, was mentioned in the trial as somebody who brought young people to Epstein for him to abuse and so this case does nothing at all to strengthen in any way the case against Prince Andrew,” he continued. “Indeed it weakens the case against Prince Andrew considerably because the government was very selective in who it used.”
The allegations Giuffre made against Dershowitz were part of Giuffre’s ongoing civil defamation lawsuit.
On Tuesday, Prince Andrew’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss Giuffre’s sexual assault lawsuit against him on the grounds that she no longer lives in the U.S. and therefore isn’t entitled to diversity jurisdiction in U.S. District Court. “All parties in litigation are subject to discovery, and Prince Andrew is no exception, despite what he may think,” Giuffre’s lawyer Sigrid S. McCawley said in response to the motion.