Alan Dershowitz Seeks to Keep Media Out of New York Hearing on Unsealing Jeffrey Epstein Documents

14 The Virgin Islands Daily News PERVERSION OF JUSTICE Monday, March 4,2019 Alan Dershowitz suggests curbing press access to hearing on Jeffrey Epstein sex abuse MIAMI -A court hearing on whether to unseal sensitive documents itwolving the alleged sex trafficking of underage girls by Pa. B.ch muft.illionaire Jeffrey Epstein - and the pos- sible imohement of his influential frien.- will play out in a NewYork City courtroom this week. But it may hap, behind clos. doors, with the news m.ia and public barr.- at least in Part An attorney for lawyer Alan Dershowitz wrote a leuer to the US. District Court Second Circuit of Appeals onThesday, asking whether die media should be exclud. from the .oceeding because his oral arguments on behalf of his client could contain sensitive information that has been under seal. The appeals court has not responded to concem as of Friday, but if die hearing is closed during his lawyer, argument it Ariuld represent the lat.t in a long hist, of successfid efforts to k, details of Epstein, sex crimes sealed. Dershowia, a profess. emeritus at Harvard, constittaional law omen and criminal defense attor, represented Epstern who in .8 received what many consider an unusually light sentence for sexually abusing dozens of girls at his Palm Beach mans ion. TWri women - one of whom was underage - have said Epstein and his p.net British soci.ite and environmentalist Ghislaine Maxwell, directed them to have sex with Dershowitz, 80, and other wealthy, powerful men. Dershowitz and Maxwell have denied the claims. Oral arguments are scheduled Wednesday to hear an appeal by the Miami Herald and other parti. seeking to unseal a 2015 court case in- volving Epstein and Maxwell. The Herald, as part of an ongoing investigation into Epstein, , hopes to s. more light on the scope of E.case stein, crim., who else might have been involved and whether there was any undue influence that tainted die criminal justice process. A legal brief supporting die Her., appeal was filed in December by the Reporters Commit- tee for Fre.orn of the Press and 32 other media com,ies, including The New Yo.Times, The Washington Post, Dow Jones, Rec News, Ganneu, Politico, Reveal Center for Investigative Reporting and Trilmne Publishing Co. The case - Wiich was settled in 2017 - imelv. [REDACTED], who sued Maxwell in federal court in the Southern District of New York in 2015. Giuffre has asserted that Maxwell and Epstein traffick. her and other underage girls, often at sex p.ies that Epstein File photo ty GETTY IMAGES Alan Dershowitz wants to keep the public, and news media, out of a hearing in New York this week in which a judge is being askd to unseal sensitive docu men. involving Jeffrey Epstein and the alleg. sex trafficking of underage girls. The case — which was settled in 2017 — involved [REDACTED] Giuffre, who sued Ghislaine Maxwell in federal court in the Southern District of NewYork in 2015. Giuffre has asserted that Maxwell and Epstein trafficked her and .her underage girls, often at sex parties that Epstein hosted t his homes in New York New Mexico, Palm Beach and the Virgin Islands. hosted at his horn. in New York, New Mexico, Pa. B.ch and the Virgin Islan.. Maxwell ca. Giuffre a resulting in Giuf- fre suing for .famation As die case was litigated, the judge allow. a vast trove of documents, including t.timony by witness., to be seal.. Dershowilz, having been publicly implicat. in Epstein, crim. by Giuf- fre, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to unseal a select number of documents that he says will exonerate h.. Blogger Michael Cernovich also fd. a motion to release a portion of the seal. document. The judge denied their motions in 2016, as the case was still ongoing, saying that release of the documents could taint a potential j, After the case was settled, the Herald fil. a more wens. motion, arguing that with the case now clos., all die documents in die case should be made public. The motion, fil. in April 2018, came as the Her. was twirking on an investiga- tive series, Perversion of Justice, valich detail. how Epstein and his lawyers manipulated f.eral prosecutors to obtain one of die most lenient sen- tenc. for someone who sexu.ly abused children in history. Dershowitz, 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-, that his ar- guments could include information that has never been ma. public because it is under seal. "What die leuer says v, clearly is we intend to malce reference to the seal. material in o, court, so we want to notify the judg. that this is my intention to malce my arguments:. Celli said. "We want the courtroom to be open so long as we can argue the substance of what we want to Barbara Petersen, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, point. out that since the judges are well aware that sealed docu- ments are at die heart of the appeaL Dershowitz, reIrst Icicei7ifs;o1MITIrceeeap71:t'ilei let:Tn.:en we are going reveal stuff and let die chips fall where they may,' she said "They don't want it to come out and they don't want to malce a motion and ban die m.ia, so they are hoping the judges do it for them:. Auorneys for Giuffre want the case unsealed. "Ms. Giuffre is a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, sex trafficking organization:. her attormy, Paul Cassell, said in a statement attach. to the Her- .d, appeal "When she bravely came forward to explain what happened to her at die hands of Epstein and his powerful friends, Epstein's dame' and girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, told the Amid that Ms. Giuffre was a liar. Ms. Giuffre filed a defamation action:. The case was sealed in Giuffre, favor, with Maxwell paying Giuffre millions. Maxwell %warts the case to remain sealed a. earlier tried to get the judge to destroy die s.Ied documents, but her motion was denied. Epstein, deal, broke'. by then-Miami US. Attorney Alexander Acosta, allowed Epstein to plead guilty to two prost.tion charges in state court, and in achange, Epstein and an untokl number of others were given federal immunity. E.tein serv. just 13 months in die courgy jail. although much of his incarceration was spent at his office in downtown west Palm B.ch on "work release:. Last w.k, a federal judge ruled that Acosta, now President Donald Trump's secretary of labor, violated die law bemuse he and other prosecutors deltherately kmt die deal seem from Epstein, tims, who are now in their late 20s and early 30s. Cernovich, lawyer, Marc J. Ftandazza, s. he has never seen a court seal nearly an entire court record lilce this. "I've seen partial seals, but I've never seen anything where it went quite that far. That in of it- self is newsvamthy,.. he said. "What kind of power here is able to influence our court system in such a big way? Something is amiss and I'm glad that journ.ists are out there looking at PERVERSION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 was taken of the two of them strolling in Manhat- tan. ft was later reve.. that Epstein had loan. the prince, ex-wife, Sarah RIguson, $24,000 to pay off some .bts. Ferguson later mlled the loan a "gigantic error ofjudgment." Changing the law Crime victims' riglis advocates have used die Epstein case to strengthen the federal law in recent years, adding more precise language mandating that prosecutors notify victims about plea bargains and .low victims to be heard at sentencing. Because some statute-of-limitation laws set deadlin. for filing civil and ctindnal cr.e cas., it, difficult to bring them years later, s. Marci Hamikort a University of Pemisylvania professor who is working to ease those restric- tions across die country. But she points out t. there has been no stat- ute of limitations for f.eral sex cr.. involving chil.en since 2002. Chi k.n who are sexually abused often take decad. to reve. what happened to diem, in part because their brains aren't wir. at a ,roung age to un.rstand the trauma they've ernerienced said Kenneth V. Lanning, a retir. FBI agent who ..tigated and studied child sex crimes for 40 years. "We want to hold chil.en to some superhuman standard because they behave this way. In re. ity, police, prosecutors and judges have to understand that children are not .1 angels from heaven. They are just P hunTebl: rtc=t Tirn=t;ineir "Really if )0u think about this too hard it, scary because this is our government that is sup- pos. to protect us but has done everything to protect a pedophile," she said