File 023000

Images

Text

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. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 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 Virginia Roberts
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