Lawyer Alan Dershowitz is having an extremely normal week. Following a not-so-flattering profile in The New Yorker and renewed allegations of sexual assault, Dershowitz published an op-ed in The Jerusalem Post titled "Why I Will Continue to Defend Clients like Jeffrey Epstein."
In the Thursday op-ed, Dershowitz defends his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire financier recently charged with sex trafficking minors.
"I have become a target of efforts to destroy my reputation and career," Dershowitz wrote, before comparing his representation of Epstein, who is a registered sex offender, to "the biblical Abraham, who defended the sinners of Sodom; John Adams, who defended the British soldiers accused of the Boston Massacre; [and] Abraham Lincoln, who defended numerous controversial clients." Dershowitz justified his association with Epstein by saying that although Americans are guaranteed a defense, "many poor people are denied effective counsel" due to their financial circumstances.
Three days ago, The New Yorker ran a profile of the attorney, describing his alleged involvement in Epstein's numerous alleged assaults on underage girls, outlining instances of alleged domestic abuse between Dershowitz and his first wife, Sue Barlach, and detailing a 1997 op-ed written by Dershowitz, titled "Statutory Rape is an Outdated Concept," in which he called for a lower age of sexual consent, an opinion he continued to defend on Twitter this week. Soon after, the hashtag #CreepyDershowitz began trending worldwide.
Last week Dershowitz appeared on Fox News to deny allegations against him, and ended up telling host Laura Ingraham that he has a "perfect, perfect, sex life." Steven Orlofsky