The legal team for Attorney Alan Dershowitz has cautioned against press access to a hearing regarding his former client and associate, convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein – who was given a slap on the wrist in 2008 by then-US Attorney for southern Florida (and current Labor Secretary) Alex Acosta. Epstein sexually abused dozens of underage girls in his Palm Beach mansion, while Acosta is under fire separately of the sealed records appeal.
Epstein, a billionaire and friend of the Clintons (Bill Clinton flew on his “Lolita Express” Boeing 727 jet dozens of times), was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution – on of two counts for which he served 13 months in “custody with work release.”
Epstein, now 66, reached the deal in 2008 with then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta’s office to end the federal probe that could have landed him in prison for life. Epstein instead pleaded guilty to lesser state charges, spent 13 months in jail, paid financial settlements to victims and is a registered sex offender. –Time
The sealed records appeal relates to a 2015 defamation lawsuit in New York brought by Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre says Maxwell helped Epstein traffic herself and other underage girls to sex parties at the billionaire pedophile’s many residences. The case was settled in 2017 and the records were sealed – leading to an appeal by the Miami Herald and several other parties seeking to make them public in the hopes of shedding more light on the scope of Epstein’s crimes – along with determining who else was involved and whether any undue influence tainted the case.
Oral arguments are scheduled Wednesday.
Dershowitz’s attorney asked a New York judge whether the media should be barred from Wednesday’s hearing in the US District Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, since “his oral arguments on behalf of his client could contain sensitive information that has been under seal,” reports the Miami Herald‘s Julie K. Brown.
The appeals court had not responded to his concern as of Friday, but if the hearing is closed during his lawyer’s argument, it would represent the latest in a long history of successful efforts to keep details of Epstein’s sex crimes sealed.
…
Two women — one of whom was underage — have said Epstein and his partner, British socialite and environmentalist Ghislaine Maxwell, directed them to have sex with Dershowitz, 80, and other wealthy, powerful men. Dershowitz and Maxwell have denied the claims. –Miami Herald
Dershowitz – having been publicly implicated in Epstein’s crimes by Giuffre, attempted to have the judge to unseal certain records in the case which he claims will exonerate him. Conservative pundit Mike Cernovich, a Dershowitz associate, also filed a motion to release some of the sealed documents. Both requests were denied in 2016, as the case (which settled in 2017) was ongoing, with the judge citing the need to avoid taining a potential jury pool.
After the case was settled, the Herald filed a more extensive motion, arguing that with the case now closed, all the documents should be made public. The motion, filed in April 2018, came as the Herald was working on an investigative series, Perversion of Justice, which detailed how Epstein and his lawyers manipulated federal prosecutors to obtain one of the most lenient sentences for a child sex offender in history.
Dershowitz’s lawyer, Andrew G. Celli Jr., emphasized to the Herald that Dershowitz is not trying to ban the media from the proceeding; he is simply giving the court a heads up that his arguments could include information that has never been made public because it’s under seal. –Miami Herald
“What the letter says very clearly is we intend to make reference to the sealed material in open court, so we want to notify the judges that this is my intention to make my arguments,” said Dershowitz attorney, Andrew Celli. “We want the courtroom to be open so long as we can argue the substance of what we want to unseal.”
First Amendment Foundation executive director Barbara Petersen suggested that Dershowitz’s request has come across as more of a “veiled threat.”
“It’s like ‘if you don’t keep out the media, then we are going to reveal stuff and let the chips fall where they may,’” said Petersen. “They don’t want it to come out and they don’t want to make a motion and ban the media, so they are hoping the judges do it for them.”
Separately, over a dozen House Democrats signed a letter last week demanding that the DOJ reopen the Epstein investigation after a Florida judge ruled that labor secretary Alex Acosta violated the law by not informing Epstein’s victims about his sweetheart plea deal.
“We urge the DOJ to reopen the non-prosecution agreement to allow for a thorough investigation of these heinous crimes,” reads the letter to newly minted Attorney General William Barr. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) was the lead signatory on the letter.
“While the government spent untold hours negotiating the terms and implications of the (agreement) with Epstein’s attorneys, scant information was shared with victims,” wrote Judge Kenneth A. Marra of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. “Instead, the victims were told to be ‘patient’ while the investigation proceeded.”
Bradley Edwards, an attorney representing two of the victims, says that Marra’s decision should mean that Epstein’s plea deal is thrown out – possibly exposing him to federal charges once again. Epstein’s plea deal also granted immunity to anyone who assisted him in procuring underage girls or concealing their abuse.
“Rather than work to correct the injustices done to the victims, the government spent 10 years defending its own improper conduct,” Edwards told Time in an email. “It is time for the government to work with the victims, and not against them, to hold everyone who committed these crimes accountable.”
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There is one common denominator in the “white slavery” and “orgy island” systems. Both systems are run by those of the “tribe” and are used to blackmail prominent politicians and others in order to “keep them in line” and to make sure that they do the bidding for those of the “tribe”…
It is a loosely-guarded secret that both systems are run out of Israel…Israel being the world “headquarters” of the sex trade and drug trade.
Here in the United States, court hearings and proceedings are supposed to be public…of course, there are special “rules” for those of the “tribe”…
Like all those hearings, prosecutions, and jail sentences surrounding the Mary Jo Kopechne “incident”.
DWS, something smells fishy and it’s not her twat.
I’d be prepared to live only as long as it takes for the truth to come out about these rapists. There are too many pezzonovantes, including the Orange Crusader, who fucked these children for any kind of justice to prevail. It’s something we shouldn’t even contemplate in that it gives credence to the illusion that “no one is above the law”. Bullshit. The ‘law’ is for slaves.
Vote, my ass.
Well said, CC. It’ll be interesting to see how the untouchable elites sweep this under the rug. A press blackout is merely the first obstacle. Behind the scenes they’re no doubt scrambling to figure out how to make this go away without any real damage to the powerful. MSM will ignore it to the extent possible.
Come on, GCP.
What’s the book about ‘all shall be revealed, nothing kept hidden’?
But then, too, do we really trust a biased media to report accurately, if the requested media blackout by Dershowitz’ lawyer is denied.?
Media will paint their enemy targets as scum, but be conspicuously vague, or silent about their friends in the swamp.
Hell, I’d bet some media heads will be exposed, too, for some disgusting actions.
Compromised. Many powerful people known to be present during deviant behavior against sex trafficking victims.
Someone posted a video interview a few weeks back, where one guy who is close to the workings of DJTs inner circle.
On this topic, he said he believes Epstein was given such a light sentence, because he gave the Feds all the names that participated, and the dragnet would be full to overflowing with many VIPs, if made public.
I suspect it be squashed, because the public’s mind couldn’t handle the enormity of it all.
Makes ya wonder why so many in Congress, from both parties, opted out of re-election.
They have it all. Evidence, that is.
Right, T4C?
Compromised.
Intriguing dirt.
Shine a light on them all.
Imagine the schittstorm a leaked story like that would create in the media.
Bigger than Watergate.
I’d love to see that but it will never happen.
I call BS. The media will ban itself, because they want control of the narrative; publicizing the truth, THIS truth and the names of all the rich, well-connected, “elite” blood-sucking predators who steer this present Titanic, would be no different than them hanging themselves in the public square on their own flat-screen, digital gallows.
Amongst the godless, self-preservation is a primary drive, and they WILL steal, kill, destroy, LIE and silence the truth at all costs in order to preserve THEIR status quo.
WRONG WRONG WRONG
A Federal judge has already ruled Alex Acosta’s actions to be ILLEGAL!
What part of ILLEGAL didn’t you understand?
Acosta committed CRIMES against the victims by ignoring their rights to challenge the dirty deal.
Filthy Dershowitz is the biggest apologist lawyers for Jewbagger Billionaires there ever was.
What do you call 10,000 lawyers/Dershowitzes at the bottom of the sea?
A: A good start.
Filthy Dershowitz would sound better as Dirty Dershowitz.
Like the saying about angels dancing on the head of a pin …
How many of them would fit in an ashtray? Unfortunately, not all of them.
Lawyers, that is.
6But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Before that happens, let me borrow the millstone and ground up some barley to brew a beer.
That’ll take about six weeks, give or take, from grain to glass. That’ll give the perps time to sweat while the beer carbs.
When the beer’s finished, I’ll crack one open and watch the punishment. Hell, I might even share if they sell tickets and make it a public event.
Was this will be covered up unless they can implicate Trump. I think they would be willing to sacrifice a few of their own like Cosby and Weinstien for a greater objective.
I hear the Cos is giving lectures to inmates on responsibility.
His PR firm must have still had a little time left on the meter.
Strange how so many MAGA-type conservatives rail against the possibility of Sharia law yet fail to see the current American justice system is just Talmudic law in practice.
Maybe Dershowitz’s shyster can be “persuaded” to tattle-tale on his client the same way that DJT’s scumbag ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, did. That might just shake things up enough to get the Lumpenprole’s attention.
I actually liked in days past, when photography was not permitted inside of a courtroom, a skilled artist would sketch the action. Somehow evil and sinister always came through.
if there are any attys reading this,how can a plea deal that was agreed to by all parties and the perp complied w/all terms/conditions , be rescinded 10 years later?
could epstein really go to federal prison for the sex crimes?