I am not asking anyone to disbelieve the charges against me because I support Israel, but rather because they are provably false (Defending Dershowitz, To A Fault?” Jan 16).
Jane Doe No. 3 accused me of having had sex with her on a private island where I spent one day in the company of my wife, my daughter, a professor at the Harvard business school, his family. I was never away from my family. We saw no young girls on the island and I certainly had no sexual encounters with Jane Doe No. 3. She has also claimed that Stephen Hawking and I were on the island together during a sex orgy. I have never met Dr. Hawking. She has said that Bill Clinton was on the island, but Secret Service records would show that he never set foot on it.
She claimed that I had sex with her at a ranch in New Mexico, which I visited for a total of one hour with my wife, my daughter and two friends. The house was being constructed. We looked around and left.
She has accused me of having sex with her on private airplanes. The flight manifests will show that I was never on a private airplane with her or any other underage women.
I have filed a sworn statement, subjecting me to perjury charges if untrue, categorically denying all the allegations and providing specific disproof of them. I have challenged my accuser and her lawyers to sign sworn statements repeating their accusations against me. They have not done so.
The lawyers have now filed defamation charges against me for fighting back against the accusations. This means they and their client will now be subject to sworn depositions. I have challenged my accuser to file formal charges against me and I have said that I will waive any statute of limitation defense. If she were to file a false rape charge, she would be committing a crime. She has not done so.
Press accounts describe a “diary” she allegedly kept recounting her relationship with the Prince and others. They do not mention me.
Everyone who cares about punishing sexual assaults should be outraged at this woman and her lawyers. Women who make up rape stories do damage both to individual victims of rape and to broad-based efforts to punish this heinous crime.
You quote Ronn Torossian as being critical of me and my views on Israel, without informing your readers that Torossian has been under federal investigation for being part of an extortion plot against my client, Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto — a plot that has resulted in guilty pleas by two individuals. Torossian has an undisclosed motive for attacking me, which you have an obligation to publish.
I have never asked for any special consideration based on my support for Israel, but I think I’m entitled to basic fairness, which I did not receive in your article. You quoted my enemies without according me any opportunity to respond to them or the false charges.
Alan Dershowitz
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Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law (emeritus)
Harvard Law School
Editor's Note, Jan. 28: In the above letter, Alan Dershowitz referred to Ronn Torossian in connection with an investigation into an alleged extortion plot that, according to Dershowitz, resulted in guilty pleas by two individuals. Dershowitz was referring to former Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm and Ofer Biton, a former aide to Dershowitz’s client, Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto. Grimm ultimately pled guilty to tax fraud, and Biton pled guilty to visa fraud. The allegations to which the individuals pled guilty did not involve Torossian, who was never charged with wrongdoing.
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