Epstein pal Alan Dershowitz argued statutory rape was an 'outdated concept', age of consent be lowered to 15
Alan Dershowitz, accused of sleeping with an underage girl in a sensational string of old court records from a settled defamation lawsuit by alleged Jeffrey Epstein sex-slave Virginia Giuffre, once wrote an op-ed arguing that "statutory rape is an outdated concept," it has been revealed.
In the documents, which were released publicly on July 30, Epstein, a convicted pedophile who died in prison last year, was accused of urging a "Jane Doe #3" to have sexual relations with Dershowitz. "One such powerful individual that Epstein forced then-minor Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with was former Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, a close friend of Epstein’s," it said. "Epstein required Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with Dershowitz on numerous occasions while she was a minor, not only in Florida, but also on private planes, in New York, New Mexico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In addition to being a participant in the abuse of Jane Doe #3 and other minors, Dershowitz was an eye-witness to the sexual abuse of many other minors by Epstein and several of Epstein's co-conspirators."
"Jane Doe #3" was the pseudonym given to Giuffre in her court proceedings against the likes of Dershowitz, Prince Andrew, and Jean-Luc Brunel.
While Dershowitz was cleared of wrongdoing at the time and has since asserted his innocence on numerous occasions, a social media user highlighted how he had once argued that statutory rape was an "outdated concept" in a 1997 op-ed for LA Times.
In the piece, Dershowitz pointed out how many women had admitted to having sex before it was legal in their states -- bringing notice to how different states had different ages of consent -- and how prosecution for cases of statutory rape was very selective.
"99% of statutory rape are not prosecuted," he wrote. "This raises a fundamental question about the continuing legitimacy of statutory rape laws at a time when sex involving teenagers is so rampant and prosecution for statutory rape so selective. It is obvious that there must be criminal sanctions against sex with very young children but it is doubtful whether such sanctions should apply to teenagers above the age of puberty since voluntary sex is so common in their age group."
He went on to argue that prosecution in such cases could be avoided by reducing the age of consent. "Based on demographic criteria, the age of consent should be lowered," he continued. "It certainly should not be as high as 17 or 16. Reasonable people can disagree over whether it should be as low as 14. Fifteen would seem like an appropriate compromise."
Having initially remained quiet about the newly-resurfaced allegations that he slept with an underage Giuffre, Dershowitz has now claimed that he asked for the release of the documents and that if anything, they prove his innocence and not his guilt. "I demanded release of all documents because they contain emails and manuscripts proving in Guiffre’s own words that she never met me," he tweeted. "I knew they would repeat her false accusations against me, Al and Tipper Gore and others, which her own lawyers admit are “wrong”."
"There are no new accusations against me in the documents I got unsealed," he continued. "All her accusations were made in suits she filed years ago. They were false then and now, as shown by her emails and manuscript that prove I never met her."
"He lawyers admit she was “wrong“ about me and others such as Al and Tipper Gore."