Alan Dershowitz

The Ghislaine Maxwell I know

My wife and I were introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell by Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynne de Rothschild, and we subsequently met her on several occasions — generally in the presence of prominent people such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nobel Prize-winning scientists, presidents of universities, and prominent academic and business people. We never saw her do anything inappropriate. We knew her only as Jeffrey Epstein’s thirty-something girlfriend.

Now she stands accused of serious crimes allegedly committed a quarter of a century ago. Like every other arrested person, she must be presumed innocent. Many in the public however, will presume her guilty because of the portrayal of her in the Netflix series about Jeffrey Epstein. But no one should believe anything they saw in that series, because it was based largely on the accounts of two women with histories of making dubious accusations.

Let’s begin with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has alleged she was trafficked to Prince Andrew by Epstein and Maxwell, for which she claims she was paid $15,000. But she also has said — as I argue in a civil action against her — that she met Al and Tipper Gore on Epstein’s island (for this and other revelations she was paid $160,000). She describes the incident in great detail, but the truth is that neither of the Gores have ever met Epstein and were certainly never on his island. She has also made accusations against former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, former majority leader of the US Senate George Mitchell, former US Representative to the UN Bill Richardson, owner of L Brands Limited Leslie Wexner, and many others who have categorically denied these accusations. Her own lawyer has acknowledged that an 11-year investigation disproved the accusations against these prominent people.

Finally, she claimed

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