Virginia Giuffre, the woman who has long claimed sex abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, and Alan Dershowitz, now says she may have "made a mistake" in accusing that third man. "I have long believed that I was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to Alan Dershowitz. However, I was very young at the time, it was a very stressful and traumatic environment ... [and] I now recognize I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz," she says in a statement announcing a settlement in the defamation lawsuit she filed against the celebrity lawyer, per the New York Times.
In his own statement cited by the AP, Dershowitz, who has consistently denied the accusations, reiterated that "I never had sex with Ms. Giuffre. I have nevertheless come to believe that at the time she accused me she believed what she said." The lawyer—who previously said the accusations caused him severe emotional distress, including "cardiac conditions"—added that Giuffre "has suffered much at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, and I commend her work combating the evil of sex trafficking," per the Times.
Giuffre, who in 2014 claimed the longtime friend of Epstein had sex with her six times between 2000 and 2002 (she was a minor during a portion of that period), accused Dershowitz of making defamatory comments about her in a 2019 complaint. A defamation lawsuit Dershowitz later filed against Giuffre—as well as others between him and David Boies, who has served as Giuffre's lawyer—will also be dropped, per the Times. They stemmed from Dershowitz's claims that Giuffre and Boies invented the allegations with the aim of extortion. Dershowitz now acknowledges he was "mistaken," per CNN.
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"The resolution does not involve the payment of any money by anyone or anything else," the parties say in a joint statement. "This litigation has been very stressful and burdensome for me and my family, and we believe it is time to bring it to an end and move on with our lives," adds Giuffre, per the AP. Before Epstein's death by suicide, Giuffre settled a lawsuit against him for $500,000. Epstein didn't admit wrongdoing, though the Times notes Giuffre's accusations against him "have been corroborated." In February, she settled another lawsuit against Prince Andrew, whom she claimed sexually assaulted her when she was 17. The British royal didn't admit wrongdoing, either, but he said he would donate to Giuffre's charity supporting sex trafficking victims. (More Jeffrey Epstein stories.)
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