Harvard law professor and frequent Fox guest Alan Dershowitz was reprimanded on-air Monday morning by host Stuart Varney for branding the woman who has accused him and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein of sexually assaulting her as “sleazy.”
In recent days, Dershowitz—who had served as one of Epstein’s attorneys—responded to Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s defamation lawsuit by filing a countersuit, claiming Giuffre has libeled him by spreading “malicious lies accusing Dershowitz of being a sexual predator, pedophile, abuser, child molester and other negative epithets.” Dershowitz also named Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies in his lawsuit.
In response, Boies filed his own suit against Dershowitz, accusing the lawyer of inventing a fake extortion plot to “distract attention from his own misconduct” while calling Dershowitz a “longtime friend” of Epstein’s. Asked about this on Monday’s broadcast of Varney & Co., Dershowitz denied ever having a close relationship with the accused serial pedophile.
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“I knew him the same way the president of Harvard knew him, he was an academic colleague,” the famed attorney asserted. “We were never close personal friends of any kind.”
Dershowitz then alleged that Boies and other lawyers had Giuffre “falsely accuse” him of sexually assaulting her, claiming he never met her or had sex with her. This prompted Dershowitz to hawk his latest book, saying he wrote it in response to false accusations.
“And let me tell you, if I can be accused by sleazy, sleazy women and lawyers, anybody can be accused,” Dershowitz added.
Varney, however, felt that Dershowitz went a step too far in his attacks on Giuffre and Boies.
“We can’t—I don’t want to be using words like that on this program,” the Fox Business host replied, “on someone who is not here to defend themselves.”
Dershowitz, meanwhile, challenged Varney to invite the lawyer’s accuser onto the FBN show so they could debate the claims.
“The point is, I’ve been falsely accused, and I’m going to keep saying that till the day I die,” the law professor concluded. “And when I die, my wife and my children will say it. I am totally innocent, I will not sit silently by and allow myself to be accused.”
