Question
Who is David Boies and what was his role in the Epstein case?
Answer
David Boies is one of America’s most prominent trial attorneys, known for representing Al Gore in Bush v. Gore (2000) and handling numerous high-profile commercial and civil cases. In the Epstein case, Boies represented Virginia Giuffre (Roberts) in civil litigation.
Boies and his firm, Boies Schiller Flexner, took on Giuffre’s case against Ghislaine Maxwell — the defamation suit filed in 2015 in which Giuffre alleged that Maxwell had defamed her by publicly calling her a liar when she described her trafficking and abuse. This litigation, the Giuffre v. Maxwell case, generated the depositions and discovery that became the basis of the document unsealing process in 2024.
Boies also played a role in Virginia Giuffre’s 2021 civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew, which resulted in a settlement in February 2022.
The Giuffre v. Maxwell case was strategically significant because it allowed Giuffre’s attorneys to compel production of documents and depositions from Maxwell and others at a time when no criminal prosecution was active. The documents produced in that litigation — including Maxwell’s deposition and other materials — are central to what the public now knows about the operation.
Boies has a controversial reputation in some circles, including in connection with unrelated matters, but his legal work in the Giuffre v. Maxwell case is widely credited with producing the documentary record that the 2019-2024 unsealing process made public.
Sources
- SDNY court records, Giuffre v. Maxwell
- Media reporting on Boies’s role in Epstein-related litigation