Former Jeffrey Epstein attorney Alan Dershowitz lobbied then-President Donald Trump to pardon madam Ghislaine Maxwell before she could face trial, according to a report.
The 83-year-old lawyer — himself long accused of having sex with one of late pedophile Epstein’s teen accusers — pushed for the pardon after UK media heiress Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 for the sex-trafficking crimes she was convicted of last month, the Times of London said.
The retired Harvard law professor was able to use his close ties to Trump, whom he also represented during his impeachment trial, the paper said.
One of the convicted madam’s brothers, Ian Maxwell, 65, confirmed to the UK paper that he had discussed the possibility of clemency with Dershowitz, who got Epstein his controversial wrist-slap 2008 plea deal on sex offenses with underage girls.
“There was one phone call between Professor Dershowitz and a family member during which the generic issue of pardons was touched on,” Ian Maxwell told the UK Times.
However, he insisted his family — heirs of late, disgraced media baron Robert Maxwell — did not pay Dershowitz or explicitly ask him to raise the matter with Trump.
Biographer Michael Wolff also claimed in “Landslide,” his book about Trump’s final days in office, that the then-president discussed the possibility of pardoning Maxwell.
Trump, one of many high-profile people who had socialized with Maxwell and Epstein, showed a “sudden interest” in the madam during the pardoning period, Wolff said.
Dershowitz declined to discuss his contact with Trump, the UK paper said. However, a source insisted that it “would not be unreasonable to report that” he had raised the Maxwell case with the then-president. The paper was unable to reach Trump for comment.
Dershowitz denied the claim in an interview with Insider on Monday, blasting the report as “simply not true.”
“I have no comment on what anybody else said. All I can tell you is that the [Sunday Times] story, the allegation of the story that I lobbied the president, is simply not true.”
As well as helping Epstein get his sweetheart 2008 deal — which saw him allegedly able to continue his abuse while under a supervised “work release” program — Dershowitz has long battled to clear his name of personal involvement.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the Epstein accuser suing Prince Andrew, has also repeatedly accused Dershowitz of having sex with her when she was as young as 16.
Dershowitz has denied the allegations and sued Giuffre for defamation, claiming she’s a “serial liar” who used his name because he was famous.
Andrew has also vehemently denied her claims, and is awaiting a decision on a motion to dismiss her lawsuit filed in Manhattan.
