Alan Dershowitz, a celebrity lawyer on President Donald Trump’s defense team in the Senate impeachment trial, is commenting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
During Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” Dershowitz was asked by co-host Meghan McCain about his connection to the late convicted sex offender. Dershowitz served as a lawyer for Epstein in the mid-2000s when he was under an investigation for sex crimes including dozens of underage girls.
McCain also prefaced the question by bringing up that Dershowitz has been accused of having sex with one of the teen girls who “Epstein allegedly lent out to his powerful friends.” Dershowitz and the accuser now have defamation allegations filed against each other.
“Did your connection to Epstein give the Trump team any pause with adding you to the defense?” McCain asked.
“The first thing I told President Trump when he asked me to do this is about those matters,” Dershowitz replied. “And I told him there was no truth to it.”
He then listed evidence he says he has, including emails from the woman admitting she’s never met him and a tape recording from her lawyer that it was “impossible for (them) to meet and that she was simply wrong.”
He continued, “I told him that this would be raised and that he should seriously consider whether he wants me to be his lawyer. Look, when Bill Clinton wanted me to help him in his case back then, I had to say to him, ‘Listen, I was O.J. (Simpson’s) lawyer. Do you want the headline to be: Clinton picks O.J.’s lawyer?’ These are all factors that go into consideration.”
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He added that a lawyer should “never be held responsible for his clients’ illegal activities.”
“We’re lawyers, we represent them. I did absolutely nothing wrong in connection with the Epstein case,” he concluded. “That’s why I’m suing. I have nothing to hide, I am awaiting a trial where I will prove I was framed for money and that I’m completely vindicated.”
Earlier in the segment, when Dershowitz was being asked about Trump’s impeachment trial, he and co-host Whoopi Goldberg clashed.
In response to one of Goldberg’s question, Dershowitz began: “Let me be very clear about that. In 1867, the dean of the –”
Then the co-host cut in, saying, “Wait, wait, wait – Alan, you know, in 1492, you know, Columbus sailed the seas of blue.”
Then the two began talking over each other after laughs from the audience from Goldberg’s interruption.
“Let me explain,” he said.
“But I need just to move on. So you’re saying now that you need a crime?,” she replied.
“No, no, no,” he retorted. “You’re not going to get me to move on until I make this point.”
“OK, well here’s the thing, Alan, you’re not going to get any time because you’ve got four people trying to ask you questions, so I need you to move faster,” she said.
He then finished his point before Goldberg said, to cheers from the audience, “OK, I’m moving you on or I’m cutting you off. One or the other.”
“I don’t want to make this contentious, but we only have several minutes,” she added.
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