Today’s Wall Street Journal carries Alan Dershowitz’s column “The inside scoop on Jeffrey Epstein.” He was Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer. That’s his opening sentence. He knows the facts. That’s his second sentence. Some of what he knows he can’t disclose because it is privileged (he doesn’t say the privilege is, but I assume attorney-client — the privilege survives the client’s death). That’s the third sentence.
These are the takeaways from the column mixed with a few comments of my own.
• Epstein never created a “client list.” The FBI interviewed alleged victims who named several “clients.” These names have been redacted and the related records sealed. The names specified may or may not be accurate. The names do not include any current officeholders. The courts have also sealed negative information about some of the accusers to protect them.
• President Trump reportedly banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, long before becoming president. Dershowitz has seen nothing that would suggest anything improper or even questionable with Epstein on Trump’s part.
• Dershowitz expresses “absolutely no doubt” that Epstein never worked for an intelligence agency. “If he had, he would surely have told me and his other lawyers, who would have used that information to get him a better deal.” Epstein was unsatisfied with the plea deal he got.
• I don’t know about that. If Epstein had been exposed as or revealed that he was an Israeli (or some other foreign government’s) intelligence asset, he might have gotten the Jonathan Pollard treatment.
• Dershowitz’s sources in Israel have confirmed to him that Epstein had no connection to Israel.
• Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they? I can hear Carlson’s maniacal laughter.
• Dershowitz attributes “[t]hat false story—recently peddled by Tucker Carlson” to “credible allegations that Robert Maxwell (1923-91), father of Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, worked with the Mossad.”
• I would say that gives Carlson too much credit. I think it more likely that they derive from something akin to the slimy calculations that brought us this.
Tucker now blaming Israel for the JFK assassination, as if his objectives could get more clear https://t.co/K7u4WEaI8a
— Tablet Magazine (@tabletmag) February 1, 2025
