The BBC apologized Thursday for a Wednesday segment that featured Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, discussing the guilty verdicts against Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. In addition to previously representing Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Dershowitz has been accused of sexual abuse by one of Epstein’s accusers, too.
“Last night’s interview with Alan Dershowitz after the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict did not meet the BBC’s editorial standards, as Mr. Dershowitz was not a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst, and we did not make the relevant background clear to our audience. We will look into how this happened,” said a statement tweeted out by the company’s press team.
Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts) has said Dershowitz, who represented Epstein when he faced similar charges a decade ago, had sex with her when she was underage. Dershowitz has denied wrongdoing, even appearing on Fox News to defend his “perfect, perfect sex life” in 2019.
Dershowitz filed an $80 million lawsuit against Netflix and the producers of “Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich” in May, claiming the documentary made “false accusations of sexual misconduct” against him.
By failing to disclose key details, Dershowitz’s lawsuit said, “the Netflix Epstein series, as a whole, effectively presented as a purported fact that Professor Dershowitz engaged in criminal sexual misconduct including sexual activity with a minor.”
None of that was mentioned Wednesday night when Dershowitz appeared on the British broadcaster to discuss Maxwell’s conviction on five out of six charges of sex trafficking stemming from her years working with Epstein. Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial related to accusations she helped recruit, groom and pay teenage girls to engage in sexual acts with Epstein.