On Monday's Today Show, Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz answered each and every claim of sexual assault made against him in a lawsuit brought by an unidentified woman claiming that financier Jeffrey Epstein kept her as a sex slave. Dershowitz was not a party to the suit. Neither was Prince Andrew, who was also mentioned in the court papers.
The lawsuit contends that a plea deal made by Mr. Epstein for soliciting prostitutes did not consider all of the victims. It adds that one of the claimants (known as Jane Doe #3), was underage when she was forced by Epstein to have sex with several men, notably Great Britain's Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz.
During the Today Show interview, not only did Dershowitz deny and offer backup for his denial of each alleged incident with Jane Doe #3, but went on the attack against the woman's attorneys, saying they should be disbarred.
Lauer: I was reading a pre-interview you did with our producer, it appears you're not only prepared to defend yourself, but you are also about to go on the offense. Let's get to the basics. Your response to the allegations that you had sex with an underage girl all those years ago, what is your response?
Dershowitz: Totally false and made up. She claims I had sex with her in Jeffrey Epstein's island. The records will show I was on that island once with my wife, my daughter, a prominent Harvard business school professor, his wife, in-laws and children. I was never out of the sight of my wife. She claims I had sex with her on Jeffrey Epstein's ranch in New Mexico. Records will show I was at the ranch once with friends with my wife and my daughter for about an hour. The house wasn't complete. Epstein wasn't even in it. There are no girls around. She claims I had sex with her on the airplanes. Manifests of the flights will show I was never on the airplanes with her.
Lauer: Did you have any contact with Jane Doe number three at all, Alan? Did you ever meet her?
Dershowitz: No. I don't even know who she is. No, I’ve never seen her, never met her. I don't know who she is, and her lawyers have to know this. Her lawyers, Paul Cassell, a former federal judge, and Brad Edwards, deliberately and willfully file this in a pleading, which they knew I had no opportunity to respond to in court without doing any investigation. If they had simply investigated the manifest of the airplanes, if they had checked my travel records, if they had asked me, and I could have given them the names of the people who are witnesses, they would know that the story is totally false. These lawyers engaged in unethical behavior and should be disbarred.
Later in the interview Dershowitz invited the lawyer or Jane Doe to press charges so he can sue for defamation:
Dershowitz: I'm not a party to the lawsuit. I have no opportunity to respond. They didn't ask for a hearing. The woman said she wants a full investigation. I welcome a full investigation. I’m not trying to silence her. I challenged her to repeat the statement to the press so that I can sue for defamation. She has repeated the statements about the prince. She has studiously refused to reproduce the statements about me. I challenged her to file rape criminal charges against me. If she does, she exposes herself to criminal prosecution. I have challenged the lawyers to repeat these statements in public so there could be a defamation hearing. They want to just throw this stink bomb and then avoid any responsibility for it. They will not get away with this. There will be legal proceedings. There will be hearings. They will be deposed. I will be deposed, the records will be produced, the truth will come out and it will show these two unethical lawyers should be disbarred. I am completely and absolutely innocent of all these charges.
Prince Andrew has also denied Jane Doe#3's claims
