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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   30883 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 7, 2022

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Alan Dershowitz, Virginia Giuffre, and David Boies all reached a settlement. I'll let David Lat summarize this mess:

In 2014, Giuffre accused Dershowitz, who had represented the late Jeffrey Epstein as a client, of having sex with her when she was underage. Specifically, she claimed that Epstein had sexually trafficked her to Dershowitz between 2000 and 2002. Dershowitz vehemently denied her claims, which lacked the extensive corroboration of her claims against Epstein. At the same time, it was challenging for Dershowitz to conclusively disprove Giuffre’s allegations, in part because of how much time he had spent in Epstein’s company or at one of his homes.

Giuffre’s accusations against Dershowitz spawned a series of defamation lawsuits. First, after Dershowitz denied her claims by calling her a “total liar” and an extortionist, Giuffre sued him for defamation, in April 2019. Dershowitz countersued Giuffre for defamation, in November 2019. Boies then sued Dershowitz, based on Dershowitz’s claims that Boies, who represented Giuffre, pressured her to lie as part of an extortion plot. Finally, Dershowitz sued Boies, also for defamation. Got all that?

Actually, the good news is you don’t need to keep track of any of these lawsuits, since they’re all going away. The three parties just reached a global settlement that resolves all of their pending litigation. All the cases will be dismissed and no money is changing hands, with all parties bearing their own costs and legal fees.

What struck me about the statements the parties issued is their congeniality. Giuffre admits that maybe she was mistaken about Dershowitz since the trafficking happened so long ago. When Dershowitz paraphrases her statement, he doesn't try to drop the "may" and leaves it in. Boies meanwhile acknowledges how damaging the allegations were to Dershowitz.

Obviously this is an exceptional case, and the statements the parties issued are quite possibly the most expensive words ever written in the history of the English language given the total legal bills involved. Still, it's an interesting case of how highly opinionated and stubborn characters can still come to an agreement where each side saves a little face.

I truly cannot stand Alan Dershowitz. His encounters with Noam Chomsky, Norman Finklestein, and Bandy Lee make my blood boil.

Can you briefly expand upon why? I only vaguely know who he is. I've seen him in TV a few times as a talking head but that's it.

Can you briefly expand upon why? I only vaguely know who he is. I've seen him in TV a few times as a talking head but that's it.

If you want the self-serving Hollywood version of Dershowitz, there's a pretty good movie of one of his books, Reversal of Fortune, in which Dershowitz (played very well by Ron Silver) defends Claus Von Bulow (Jeremy Irons, who won an Oscar for it), an aristocrat charged with attempted murder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversal_of_Fortune

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