Jeffrey Epstein Ridiculed Lawyer Alan Dershowitz in Private, New Emails Show

Jeffrey E. Epstein, the financier at the heart of an infamous child sex trafficking operation, privately disparaged former Harvard professor Alan M. Dershowitz over a period of years even as Dershowitz, his lawyer, continued providing legal guidance, according to emails released by Congress on Wednesday.

Epstein’s comments about Dershowitz — made to several affiliates including former Harvard President Lawerence H. Summers — were made public by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. Epstein repeatedly criticized Dershowitz’s media presence and defense of U.S. President Donald Trump, in addition to several offhand insults.

In an apparently unprompted comment over email to Summers in December 2018, Epstein volunteered that Trump was “borderline insane,” compared to Dershowitz, who was “a few feet further from the border but not by much.”

That same month, Dershowitz told Axios that he had not recently had “any social contact” with Epstein, though he was still serving as his legal counsel and had spoken “a couple of times about legal issues.”

“You never stop being a person’s lawyer,” he said.

Dershowitz, who taught at Harvard Law School until his retirement in 2013, was part of the legal team that negotiated Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement in Florida and later represented him as allegations mounted in civil suits. Epstein was charged in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors, when Dershowitz was no longer serving as his legal counsel. Epstein died by suicide one month later in prison.

Previous Epstein documents made public have portrayed Dershowitz as closely connected to Epstein. But the Wednesday release complicates that image, suggesting the relationship had soured by 2018 — at least on Epstein’s end.

Around that time, Dershowitz, who rose to prominence defending a-listers like O.J. Simpson and Claus Von Bülow in court, became an outspoken presence on cable news, frequently offering legal defenses of Trump that surprised many of his longtime colleagues.

Epstein issued sharp criticisms of Dershowitz’s media presence and his cozy relationship with Trump to several friends and colleagues over email.

In a March 2018 exchange with his longtime accountant Richard Kahn, he predicted that “trump will probably hire dershowitz, no joke.” Kahn replied that it “seems like Dershowitz has been interviewing for the job for last 2 months on fox news.”

Dershowitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Epstein’s private criticisms.

In another July 2018 email, one of Epstein’s associates — whose name is redacted in the documents released by Congress — mocked Dershowitz for being “in hog heaven” on television and dubbed him “the Kim Kardashian of the legal scene, famous for being famous.”

Epstein replied a few minutes later: “nicely put. !”

Yet the private sniping contrasted with the cordial relationship the two men maintained over email. According to the release, Dershowitz and Epstein exchanged messages as late as spring 2019, months before Epstein’s arrest and eventual death. The tone remained matter-of-fact, largely involving forwarded articles.

In remarks throughout the 2000s, Dershowitz described Epstein as a client — and occasionally as a friend — insisting that he had been unfairly maligned. Private correspondences reported by Bloomberg in September showed Dershowitz referring to Epstein as “one of his close friends” and asserting that “Jeffrey is a good person who does many good things.”

When asked about those comments in September, Dershowitz pointed to his role as Epstein’s attorney.

“I was his lawyer,” he wrote in an email. “It was my legal duty to advocate for him.”

—Staff writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at sebastian.connolly@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @SebastianC4784.

​​—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at elise.spenner@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @EliseSpenner.