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SALT LAKE CITY — More barbs were traded Wednesday in the legal feud between Alan Dershowitz and University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell, with both sides accusing the other of "character assassination."
The prominent defense attorney and former Harvard Law School professor has filed a motion for limited intervention in the federal case involving two women suing the U.S. government.
Cassell, who is also a former federal judge, and his partner, Florida attorney Brad Edwards, represent the two women, known only as Jane Does No. 1 and 2. They claim they were sex slaves for disgraced billionaire and Wall Street investor Jeffrey Epstein.
Cassell wants two more women, known as Jane Does No. 3 and 4, to be added to the lawsuit. In filing their motion, Cassell and Edwards wrote in court papers that Jane Doe No. 3 engaged in sexual relations with Dershowitz when she was a minor. Dershowitz is not named in any civil litigation or criminal charge.
Dershowitz, however, now wants the chance to clear his name in court.
He noted in his motion that a similar filing in the case by former assistant U.S. attorney Bruce E. Reinhart was denied by the court. But Dershowitz said the "defamatory falsehoods" against him are "of an entirely different order of magnitude, and they have spread around the world."
Besides being wholly irrelevant, the allegations made in (Cassell and Edwards' motion) with respect to (professor) Dershowitz are categorically false. In fact, they are absolutely outrageous.
–Court documents
The motion filed by Cassell and Edwards created a "media firestorm," Dershowitz said in court documents.
"Besides being wholly irrelevant, the allegations made in (Cassell and Edwards' motion) with respect to (professor) Dershowitz are categorically false," the motion states. "In fact, they are absolutely outrageous."
Dershowitz says his reputation is at stake. Earlier, on national television, he called for the disbarment of Cassell and Edwards.
"The docket sheets and courtrooms of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida should not be used as a bulletin board to which irrelevant, baseless and ill-willed reputational attacks can be tacked up without consequence," Dershowitz's motion states.
On Tuesday, Cassell and Edwards countered against Dershowitz's television appearances, filing a defamation lawsuit against him in the 17th Judicial Circuit Court in Broward County, Florida.
