Giuffre Drops Defamation Claims Against Dershowitz
Virginia Giuffre voluntarily dismisses her defamation lawsuit against Alan Dershowitz with prejudice, issuing a statement saying she may have been mistaken in his case, in a significant legal development in one of the Epstein case's most contentious side disputes.
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In May 2024, Virginia Giuffre voluntarily dismissed her defamation lawsuit against Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz with prejudice, meaning the claim was permanently concluded and could not be refiled.
In a statement accompanying the dismissal, Giuffre said: “I was very young at the time and under enormous stress and dealing with PTSD,” and acknowledged she “may have made a mistake” in Dershowitz’s case.
Dershowitz had vigorously denied Giuffre’s allegations from the moment she named him — first in anonymous court filings and later in her public statements — and had pursued counter-defamation litigation against her and others who repeated or amplified the allegations. He publicly characterized the dismissal as a complete vindication.
The development was significant in several respects. It was the first time Giuffre publicly acknowledged potential error about a specific named person. It also highlighted the risks that trafficking survivors face when publicly naming associates — defamation liability, counter-litigation, and the necessity of certainty in allegations they make publicly.
Critics of the outcome noted that the resolution did not produce any finding of fact about what did or did not occur, leaving the underlying question unresolved.