Amid explicit details revealed in new court documents alleging an underage girl was forced to have sex with him repeatedly, renowned attorney Alan Dershowitz repeated his denial of the charges and lashed out at allegations made by her legal team.
“They have sued me for defamation, the newest definition of chutzpah. They accuse me of the most horrendous crime,” the former Harvard Law school professor told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie on Thursday.
As he did earlier this month on TODAY, Dershowitz said he does not know the alleged victim.
“I’ve never seen her, I’ve never met her,” said. “She is categorically lying and making the whole thing up.”
The details appeared in the latest filing of a civil lawsuit by a woman who claims she was forced into sex with Dershowitz and others, notably England’s Prince Andrew, who also has rejected the allegations. The lawsuit claims the ordeal was orchestrated by a friend of both men, New York financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Dershowitz said he welcomes an investigation into the case.
"I’m afraid of nothing. I am hiding nothing. She is afraid of revealing this in public. She is afraid of giving dates or specifics," he said. "I have been absolutely upfront in answering every question and the lawyers are lying through their teeth when they say I refuse to be deposed. They’re hiding her. We sought to depose her."
Dershowitz also said:
- He was initially told by the woman’s lawyers he would be a relevant witness in the case but did not know about specific allegations against him until last month: “They never ever accused me until December of having sex with her. This is Pinocchio’s nose growing longer and longer and longer.”
- He never witnessed Epstein acting inappropriately: “I was never in the presence of a single young underage woman. When I was with him it was with prominent scientists, prominent academics and they're again just lying about this. I never saw him doing anything improper. I was not a witness, I was not a participant and I will prove it categorically.
Prince Andrew was scheduled Thursday to make his first official statement about the allegations at an event in Switzerland. Last week, his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, defended him on TODAY as a “humongously good man” and said the sex claims amount to a defamation of character. Ferguson also stood behind the rare denials from Buckingham Palace against the charges, saying, “We stand by that denial.”
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