Epstein accuser retracts rape claim
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an alleged victim of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has walked back her claim that she was forced to have sex with his lawyer Alan Dershowitz. In a statement released on Tuesday, Giuffre stated she “may have made a mistake” when she sued Dershowitz, blaming the psychological stress she experienced as an underage trafficking victim.
“I have long believed that I was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to Alan Dershowitz. However, I was very young at the time, it was a very stressful and traumatic environment, and Mr. Dershowitz has from the beginning consistently denied these allegations,” Giuffre said in the statement before acknowledging the possibility she could have erred in naming the attorney.
Giuffre and Dershowitz both dropped their defamation lawsuits against each other without any financial payments changing hands, agreeing not to sue again and waiving the right to an appeal.
Dershowitz released his own statement “commending” Giuffre for her “courage in now stating publicly that she may have been mistaken about me.”
Giuffre claimed in a 2015 affidavit that she was forced to have sex with Dershowitz “at least six” times over a three-year period, beginning when she was “about 16.” The alleged encounters took place at Epstein’s properties in Palm Beach, New Mexico, and his private island in the Caribbean.
Giuffre has testified that while apprenticing as a massage therapist at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, she was recruited by Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and trafficked to his famous friends, including Prince Andrew, modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, hedge funder Glenn Dubin, and Dershowitz. She reached a $500,000 settlement with Epstein in 2009 and settled for a reported $12 million with the prince earlier this year.
Dershowitz, who has claimed he “never had any knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein having any contact with underage women – ever,” helped secure the 2008 plea deal that allowed the disgraced financier to serve just 13 months in prison – and most of that on work release – despite dozens of women coming forward to accuse him of sexual abuse when they were underage.
