Alan Dershowitz isn’t done on the libel front. The Harvard law professor has now filed a new suit against Netflix over Filthy Rich, the docuseries that examines convicted and deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
That series premiered on the streaming platform on May 27, 2020. Dershowitz, who was friendly with Epstein and once represented him, gave interviews for the series. On camera, he defended Epstein’s 2008 plea bargain and continued to deny having raped Virginia Roberts Giuffre as part of Epstein’s sexual trafficking of minors.
Dershowitz continues to be in court with Giuffre over her allegations, and now he’s expanded the battle to preserve his reputation to include Netflix as well as Filthy Rich producers Leroy & Morton Productions and Radical Media over “a deliberately one-sided narrative.”
Related Stories
The suit takes issue with the presentation of the Dershowitz/Giuffre elements in Filthy Rich as “he said/she said.”
“It wasn’t a ‘he said/she said’ situation, however, given Professor Dershowitz’s totality of the evidence establishing he never had sex with Giuffre,” states the complaint. “To have presented that evidence in Filthy Rich, as had been promised, would have undercut the credibility of Brad Edwards, Sigrid McCawley and Giuffre — the very people whose interviewed comments Filthy Rich depended upon.”
Dershowitz brings a libel claim as well as contract and fraudulent inducement causes of action based on the agreement for an interview. He says that producers promised not to disparage him.
The suit, coming a day after Dershowitz convinced a federal judge to greenlight a separate libel case over CNN coverage of his work defending Donald Trump, is the latest in the attorney’s campaign over what he perceives to be misleading.
Here, for example, he attacks non-chronological editing choices that he believes lent credibility to Giuffre’s accusations. Also, in what seems to be an effort to avoid fair report privilege, he alleges that there were portions of Filthy Rich that presented allegations “anew” and outside the context of any report of litigation. He also faults producers for not including exculpatory materials he provided.
A Netflix spokesperson responds, “Mr. Dershowitz’s lawsuit is without merit, and we will vigorously defend our partners and the series.”
