Alan Dershowitz | |
|---|---|
 Dershowitz in 2009 | |
| Born | Alan Morton Dershowitz (1938-09-01)September 1, 1938 (age 87) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Occupations |
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| Political party | Democratic (before 2024) Independent (2024–present) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 (includingElon) |
| Website | dersh |
Alan Morton Dershowitz (/ˈdɜːrʃəwɪts/DUR-shə-wits; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and law professor known for his work inU.S. constitutional andcriminal law.[1][2] From 1964 to 2013, he taught atHarvard Law School, where he was appointed as theFelix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993.[3][4] Dershowitz is a regular media contributor, political commentator, and legal analyst.
Dershowitz has taken on high-profile and often unpopular causes and clients.[4][5][6] As of 2009, he had won 13 of the 15 murder and attempted murder cases he handled as acriminal appellate lawyer.[7] Dershowitz has represented such celebrity clients asMike Tyson,Patty Hearst,Leona Helmsley,Julian Assange, andJim Bakker.[8] Major legal victories have included two successful appeals that overturned convictions, first forHarry Reems in 1976, then in 1984 forClaus von Bülow, who had been convicted of the attempted murder of his wife,Sunny.[6] In 1995, Dershowitz served as the appellate adviser on themurder trial of O. J. Simpson as part of the legal "Dream Team" alongsideJohnnie Cochran andF. Lee Bailey.[9] He was a member ofHarvey Weinstein's defense team in 2018[6] and of PresidentDonald Trump's defense team in hisfirst impeachment trial in 2020.[5] He was a member ofJeffrey Epstein's defense team and helped to negotiate a 2006non-prosecution agreement on Epstein's behalf.[10]
Dershowitz is the author of several books about politics and the law, includingReversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case (1985), the basis ofthe 1990 film;Chutzpah (1991);Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O. J. Simpson Case (1996);The Case for Israel (2003); andThe Case for Peace (2005). His two most recent works areThe Case Against Impeaching Trump (2018) andGuilt by Accusation: The Challenge of Proving Innocence in the Age of #MeToo (2019).[11] An ardent supporter of Israel,[12] he has written several books on theArab–Israeli conflict.
Dershowitz was born inWilliamsburg, Brooklyn, on September 1, 1938, the son of Claire (née Ringel) and Harry Dershowitz,[13] anOrthodox Jewish couple.[8] He was raised inBorough Park.[14] His father was a founder and president of theYoung Israel of Boro Park Synagogue in the 1960s, served on the board of directors of theEtz Chaim School in Borough Park, and, in retirement, was co-owner of the Manhattan-based Merit Sales Company.[15][16] Dershowitz's first job was at a deli factory onManhattan'sLower East Side in 1952, at age 14.[17]
Dershowitz attendedYeshiva University High School, an independent boys'prep school in Manhattan owned byYeshiva University, where he played on the basketball team. He was a rebellious student, often criticized by his teachers. He later said his teachers told him to do something that "requires a big mouth and no brain ... so I became a lawyer".[18] After graduating from high school, he studiedpolitical science atBrooklyn College, graduating in 1959 with aBachelor of Arts,magna cum laude. He then attendedYale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief ofThe Yale Law Journal.[14] He graduated in 1962 ranked first in his class with aBachelor of Laws.[3] In 1997 he was a member of aConservativeminyan at HarvardHillel but a secular Jew.[19]
After graduating from law school, Dershowitz was alaw clerk for Chief JudgeDavid L. Bazelon of theU.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1962 to 1963.[8] Dershowitz described Bazelon as an influential mentor. He has said, "Bazelon was my best and worst boss at once.... He worked me to the bone; he didn't hesitate to call at 2 a.m. He taught me everything—how to be a civil libertarian, a Jewish activist, a mensch. He was halfway between a slave master and a father figure." From 1963 to 1964 Dershowitz clerked for the JusticeArthur Goldberg of theU.S. Supreme Court.[8]
Dershowitz told Tom Van Riper ofForbes that getting a Supreme Court clerkship was probably his second big break. His first was at age 14 or 15, when a camp counselor told him he was smart but that his mind operated a little differently.[17] He joined the Harvard Law School faculty as an assistant professor in 1964, and was made a full professor in 1967 at age 28, at that time the youngest full professor of law in the school's history.[20] He was appointed as theFelix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993.[3] Dershowitz retired from teaching at Harvard Law in 2013.[4] He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at theGatestone Institute.[21][22][23] Throughout his tenure at Harvard, Dershowitz maintained his legal practice in both criminal and civil law.
Dershowitz's clients have included such high-profile figures asPatty Hearst, Harry Reems,Leona Helmsley,Jim Bakker,Mike Tyson,Michael Milken, O. J. Simpson andKirtanananda Swami.
In 1976, Dershowitz handled the successful appeal ofHarry Reems, who had been convicted of distribution of obscenity resulting from acting in thepornographic movieDeep Throat.[6] Dershowitz argued againstcensorship of pornography onFirst Amendment grounds and maintained that consumption of pornography was not harmful.[24][25]
In one of his first high-profile cases, Dershowitz representedClaus von Bülow, a British socialite, on appeal for the attempted murder of his wife,Sunny von Bülow, who went into a coma inNewport, Rhode Island, in 1980 (and later died in 2008).[26] He succeeded in having the conviction overturned, and von Bülow was acquitted in a retrial.[27] Dershowitz told the story of the case in his bookReversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow case (1985),[28] which was adapted into a movie in 1990. Dershowitz was played by actorRon Silver, and Dershowitz himself had a cameo as a judge.[29]
In his bookTaking the Stand, Dershowitz recounts that von Bülow had a dinner party after he was found not guilty at his retrial. Dershowitz told him that he would not attend if it was a "victory party," and von Bülow assured him that it was only a dinner for "several interesting friends."Norman Mailer attended the dinner where, among other things, Dershowitz explained why the evidence pointed to von Bülow's innocence. Dershowitz described Mailer grabbing his wife's arm and saying: "Let's get out of here. I think this guy is innocent. I thought we were going to be having dinner with a man who actually tried to kill his wife. This is boring."[30]
In 1989, Dershowitz filed a defamation suit against CardinalJózef Glemp, thenArchbishop of Warsaw, on behalf of RabbiAvi Weiss. That summer, Weiss and six other members of the New York Jewish community had staged a protest at theAuschwitz concentration camp over the presence of a controversial convent ofCarmelite nuns.[31] Weiss and the protesters were ejected after attempting to scale a wall surrounding the convent.[31] In an August 1989 speech, Glemp referenced the incident and ascribed a violent intent to the protesters, saying, "Recently, a squad of seven Jews from New York launched an attack on the convent at Oswiecim [Auschwitz]. They did not kill the nuns or destroy the convent only because they were stopped." In the same speech, Glemp made antisemitic remarks suggesting that Jews control the news media.[31] The lawsuit centered on these statements.[31] His account of the lawsuit appears in his 1991 bookChutzpah.[32][33]
In 1990, theUS federal government indictedKirtanananda Swami on five counts ofracketeering, six counts ofmail fraud, and conspiracy to murder two of his opponents in the Hare Krishna movement (Stephen Bryant and Charles St. Denis).[34] The government claimed that he had illegally amassed a profit of more than $10.5 million over four years. It also charged that he ordered the killings because the victims had threatened to reveal hissexual abuse of minors.[34]
On March 29, 1991, Kīrtanānanda was convicted on nine of the 11 charges (the jury failed to reach a verdict on the murder charges), but theCourt of Appeals, convinced by the arguments of defense attorney Alan Morton Dershowitz, threw out the convictions, saying thatchild molestation evidence had unfairly prejudiced thejury against Kīrtanānanda, who was not charged with those crimes.[34]
During themurder trial of O. J. Simpson, Dershowitz acted as an appellate adviser to Simpson's defense team,[9] and later wrote a book about it,Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O. J. Simpson Case (1996). Dershowitz wrote: "the Simpson case will not be remembered in the next century. It will not rank as one of the trials of the century. It will not rank with theNuremberg trials, theRosenberg trial,Sacco and Vanzetti. It is on par withLeopold and Loeb and theLindbergh case, all involving celebrities. It is also not one of the most important cases of my own career. I would rank it somewhere in the middle in terms of interest and importance."[35] The case has been described as the most publicized criminal trial in American history.[36]
Dershowitz was a member of the legal defense team for the first criminal case againstJeffrey Epstein, who was investigated after accusations that he had repeatedly solicited sex from minors.[37] Dershowitz had previously befriended Epstein through their mutual acquaintanceLynn Forester de Rothschild.[10] In 2006 while working on Epstein's legal team Dershowitz described Epstein as his close friend and claimed “When the full story finally comes out, the world will learn what we already know—that Jeffrey is a good person who does many good things.”[38]
In 2006 Dershowitz was involved in efforts to discredit Epstein's young accusers. The effort included hiring private investigators and Dershowitz personally sending printed copies of marijuana related posts on an accuser'sMySpace page to Florida police investigating Epstein. One of Epstein's victims complained that the private investigators hired by Dershowitz impersonated police officers. Another filing by the legal team contained a victim's personnel file from her time working atVictoria's Secret.[39][40] Speaking to the police about Epstein's victims Dershowitz said “These girls are self-described prostitutes, they don’t feel harmed, and they’re out for money,”[38]
The first investigation into Epstein concluded with a controversialnon-prosecution agreement that Dershowitz helped negotiate on Epstein's behalf.[10] On June 30, 2008, after Epstein pleaded guilty to a state charge (one of two) of procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.[41]
In 2018 Dershowitz claimed to have broken off social contact with Epstein while still giving him legal advice.[42]
In April 2019, Epstein victimVirginia Giuffre filed a federal civil defamation lawsuit against Dershowitz in New York,[43][44] with David Boies as her lawyer.[45] The same month,Maria Farmer filed an affidavit in support of Giuffre's defamation suit that stated that while Farmer worked signing in guests at Epstein's front desk in 1995–1996, she had regularly encountered Dershowitz at the New York mansion at times when underage girls were present.[44] In June, Dershowitz filed a motion to dismiss Giuffre's suit (which was later denied)[46] and a motion to disqualify Boies's firm from representing her (which was later approved).[10][47] In September 2019, Giuffre said she continued to stand by her claims of misconduct by Dershowitz.[47] Dershowitz accused Boies of pressuring Giuffre to give false testimony, in response to which Boies sued Dershowitz in November 2019 for defamation.[46]
In October 2019, Charles Cooper took over representation of Giuffre in the defamation suit against Dershowitz after a judge ruled that Boies could not continue as Giuffre's lawyer because Dershowitz's claim that she conspired with her attorneys to make false claims had turned Boies into a potential witness.[48] A 2020 court filing by Dershowitz in the case brought to light that Giuffre also claimed she had been sexually assaulted byEhud Barak after being trafficked to him by Epstein. Both Dershowitz and Barak denied Giuffre's claims.[49] All claims were dismissed on November 8, 2022, after attorneys for Giuffre, Boies, and Dershowitz filed joint stipulations, and no fees were awarded to either side. Giuffre said she might have been mistaken in identifying Dershowitz.[50]
In 2025, Dershowitz said he was aware of the names associated with theEpstein list but was bound by confidentiality.[51] In 2025 it was reported that he had contributed a mocked-up fictional excerpt fromVanity Fair magazine toJeffrey Epstein's 2003 birthday book.[52] According toBloomberg, Epstein gave Dershowitz's wife a newLexus as a gift. Dershowitz described this as part of his legal fee, as his wife would drive Epstein around.[53] In 2025 it was reported thatJP Morgan tagged a number of monetary transactions of Epstein's as suspicious and possibly related to human trafficking.[54] This includes an unknown number and unknown amount of transactions between Epstein and Dershowitz. Dershowitz stated that the funds received from Epstein were payment for legal services provided.[54] In a 2025 appearance onChris Cuomo'sNewsNation show Dershowitz argued that Epstein was not apedophile.[55]
In 2011, Dershowitz served as a consultant forJulian Assange's legal team while Assange was facing the prospect of charges from the U.S. government for distributing classified documents throughWikiLeaks.[56] Of his decision to engage with Assange's team, Dershowitz said that Assange should be considered a journalist, adding, "I believe that to protect the First Amendment we need to protect new electronic media vigorously."[57]
In May 2018, Dershowitz joinedHarvey Weinstein's legal team as a consultant for Weinstein's lawyerBenjamin Brafman. Dershowitz advised the team on obtaining documents fromThe Weinstein Company related to thesexual abuse allegations against Weinstein.[58]
In January 2020, Dershowitz joined PresidentDonald Trump's legal team as Trump was being tried onimpeachment charges in the Senate.[59] Dershowitz's addition to the team was notable, as commentators pointed out that he was aHillary Clinton supporter and had offered occasionally controversial television defenses of Trump in the preceding two years.[60] The statement announcing Dershowitz's joining the team said that Dershowitz was "nonpartisan when it comes to the Constitution."[59] Dershowitz said he would not accept any compensation, and if he was paid anything, he would donate it to charity.[37][61] He defended his representation of Trump, which was controversial among Trump critics, saying, "I'm there to try to defend the integrity of the constitution. That benefits President Trump in this case."[61] Dershowitz said that his role would be limited to presenting oral arguments before the Senate opposing impeachment.[62]
In his oral arguments, Dershowitz said that proof of a crime is required to impeach a president. Some commentators suggested that his position contradicted his statements during theimpeachment of Bill Clinton, when he said no proof of a crime was required.[63] Dershowitz later retracted his statements made during the Clinton era, saying, "To the extent there are inconsistencies between my current position and what I said 22 years ago, I am correct today .... During the Clinton impeachment, the issue was not whether a technical crime was required, because he was charged with perjury."[64]
Some of his comments were considered to represent an overly expansive view of executive power. He argued, "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment." Dershowitz later said his comment was mischaracterized: "a president seeking reelection cannot do anything he wants. He is not above the law. He cannot commit crimes."[65][66] In 2020, Dershowitz suedCNN for alleged mischaracterization of his comments amounting to defamation.[67][68] He set up alegal defense fund to cover his expenses in the lawsuit and, in 2022, CNN asked the court to force the fund to disclose its donors.[69] Later in the year the court ordered the disclosure.[70] The judge ruled against Dershowitz on the defamation issue in 2023.[71]
After the trial, Dershowitz used his ties with theTrump administration to lobby it to give clemency to his various other clients. He played a role in at least 12 clemency grants, as well as unsuccessfully lobbying the administration to commute the 10-year sentence ofGeorge Nader, who had pleaded guilty tochild pornography andsex trafficking.[72]
Dershowitz was a member of theDemocratic Party until September 2024, when he renounced the party and became anIndependent, citing several "anti-Jewish" lawmakers in the party and the 2024Democratic National Convention, at which Vice PresidentKamala Harris became theparty's presidential nominee.[73][better source needed] In 2016, he said that ifKeith Ellison were appointed party chair, he would leave the party;[74]Tom Perez was appointed instead. Dershowitz endorsedHillary Clinton in the2008 presidential election, and later endorsed the nominee,Barack Obama.[75] He opposed theimpeachment of Bill Clinton and said he voted for Hillary Clinton in the2016 presidential election.[76] Dershowitz campaigned against Trump during the 2016 election and has been critical of many of his actions, includinghis travel ban, his rescission of protections for "Dreamers", and his failure to single outwhite nationalists for their provocations duringprotests in Charlottesville.[77][78] Comparing Trump unfavorably to Hillary Clinton in October 2016, Dershowitz said, "I think there's no comparison between who has engaged in more corruption and who is more likely to continue that if elected President of the United States."[79]
Dershowitz is a strong supporter ofIsrael.[6][8][12] He self-identifies as both "pro-Israel and pro-Palestine," writing, "I want to see a vibrant, democratic, economically viable, peaceful Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel."[80] He has said, "were I an Israeli, I'd be a person of theleft and voting the left".[81] He also criticized President Obama's foreign policy stance toward Israel after the U.S. abstained from voting onUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israel for buildingIsraeli settlements in the occupiedPalestinian territory.[82] He has said, "I will not be a member of a party that represents itself through a chairman like Keith Ellison and through policies like that espoused by John Kerry and Barack Obama."[83]
Dershowitz had a contract to provide advice toJoey Allaham, alobbyist working for theQatari government. In January 2018, Dershowitz questioned claims thatQatar funds terrorist groups, includingHamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by several countries, including Israel, the U.S., and the European Union.[84] Dershowitz wrote, "Qatar is quickly becoming the Israel of the Gulf States, surrounded by enemies, subject to boycotts and unrealistic demands, and struggling for its survival."[85]
Dershowitz has engaged in public debates with several other commentators, includingMeir Kahane,[86]Noam Chomsky, andNorman Finkelstein. After former U.S. PresidentJimmy Carter published his bookPalestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2006)—which argues that Israel's control of Palestinian land is the primary obstacle to peace—Dershowitz challenged Carter to a debate atBrandeis University. Carter declined, saying, "I don't want to have a conversation even indirectly with Dershowitz. There is no need to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine."[87] Carter did address Brandeis in January 2007, but only Brandeis students and staff were allowed to attend. Dershowitz was invited to respond on the same stage only after Carter had left.[88][89] He authored an editorial in the Israeli newspaperThe Jerusalem Post accusingAlice Walker of bigotry for refusing to have her novelThe Color Purple published by an Israeli firm.[90]
In April 2009, Dershowitz took part in theDoha Debates atGeorgetown University, where he spoke against the motion "this House believes it's time for the US to get tough on Israel" withDore Gold, President of theJerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Speakers for the motion wereAvraham Burg, former chair of theJewish Agency for Israel and formerSpeaker of the Knesset; andMichael Scheuer, former chief of theCIABin Laden Issue Station. Dershowitz's side lost the debate, with 63% of the audience voting for the motion.[91]
In 2006, Dershowitz argued for the prosecution of Iranian presidentMahmoud Ahmedinejad forincitement to genocide based on his threat of "wiping Israel off the map".[92][93] His 2015 bookThe Case Against the Iran Deal argues that the Supreme Leader of Iran,Ali Khamenei, had urged the Iranian military "to have two nuclear bombs ready to go off in January 2005 or you're not Muslims".[94] On February 29, 2012, Dershowitz filed an amicus brief in support of delisting thePeople's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) from theState Department list offoreign terrorist organizations.[95][96]
Of civilian casualties, Dershowitz has said, "In the age of terrorism, when militants don't wear uniforms, don't belong to regular armies, and easily blend into civilian populations," civilian casualties should be reexamined in terms of a "continuum of civilianality." In one example, he writes: "There is a vast difference—both moral and legal—between a 2-year-old who is killed by an enemy rocket and a 30-year-old civilian who has allowed his house to be used to storeKatyusha rockets."[97]
After Hamas's7 October attacks in Israel, Dershowitz praised thecountry's military response. He often writes essays about the war in his newsletter.[98][unreliable source?] Genocide researcherOmar Shahabudin McDoom cited one of Dershowitz's op-eds as an example ofGaza genocide denial.[99]
Randall Adams ofThe Harvard Crimson wrote that, in the spring of 2002, a petition calling for Harvard and MIT to divest from Israeli and American companies that sell arms to Israel gathered over 600 signatures, including 74 from Harvard faculty and 56 from MIT faculty. Among the signatories was Harvard's Winthrop House Master Paul D. Hanson, in response to which Dershowitz staged a debate for 200 students in the Winthrop Junior Common Room. He called the petition's signatories antisemitic bigots and said they knew nothing about the Middle East. "Your House master is a bigot", he told the students, "and you ought to know that." Adams wrote that Dershowitz cited examples of human rights violations in countries that the U.S. supports, such as the execution of homosexuals in Egypt and the repression of women in Saudi Arabia, and said he would sue any professor who voted against the tenure of another academic because of the candidate's position on Israel, calling them "ignoramuses with PhDs".[100]
Dershowitz is a strong supporter of gun control. He has criticized theSecond Amendment to the United States Constitution, saying that it has "no place in modern society".[101] Dershowitz supports repealing the amendment, but vigorously opposes using the judicial system to read it out of the Constitution because that would open the way for further revisions to the Bill of Rights and Constitution by the courts. "Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a public safety hazard don't see the danger in the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like."[102]
Dershowitz took on a case of a 1% shareholder of theTransPerfect company and argued that theTakings Clause of the Fifth Amendment andDue Process under both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments apply to individuals even in a corporate issue.[103][104] He was an attorney for defendant Shirley Shawe and sought to take the case of the Delaware Chancery's forced sale of TransPerfect away from its shareholders to the Supreme Court.[105] Dershowitz has argued that theDelaware Chancery court violated the personal rights of an individual shareholder when it ordered the public auction on the company.[106]
Dershowitz staunchly opposes thedeath penalty.[107] In 1963, as a law clerk to JusticeArthur Goldberg, he wrote a memo at Goldberg's behest that was never published as an opinion, arguing that the death penalty violated theEighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments. Dershowitz sent the memo to theNAACP LDF and theACLU, which then waged a campaign against the death penalty that resulted in ade facto moratorium on executions beginning in 1967 and the landmark 1972 Supreme Court caseFurman v. Georgia, which found the death penalty as currently applied unconstitutional. The 1976 caseGregg v. Georgia upheld numerous states' revised death penalty statutes.[108] Dershowitz has continued to criticize capital punishment.[109][110]
After theSeptember 11 attacks, Dershowitz published an article in theSan Francisco Chronicle titled "Want to Torture? Get a Warrant", in which he advocated the issuance of warrants permitting thetorture of terrorism suspects if there were an "absolute need to obtain immediate information in order to save lives coupled with probable cause that the suspect had such information and is unwilling to reveal it."[111] He argued that authorities should be permitted to use non-lethal torture in aticking time bomb scenario and that it would be less destructive to the rule of law to regulate the process than to leave it to individual law-enforcement agents' discretion. He favors preventing the government from prosecuting the subject of torture based on information revealed during such an interrogation.[112] Robert Fothergill's 2003 playThe Dershowitz Protocol is named after Dershowitz.[113]
William F. Schulz, executive director of the U.S. section ofAmnesty International, found Dershowitz's ticking-bomb scenario unrealistic because, he argued, it would require that "the authorities know that a bomb has been planted somewhere; know it is about to go off; know that the suspect in their custody has the information they need to stop it; know that the suspect will yield that information accurately in a matter of minutes if subjected to torture; and know that there is no other way to obtain it."[114]
Dershowitz is one of several scholars at Harvard Law School who have expressed their support for limitedanimal rights.[115] In hisRights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights (2004), he writes that, in order to prevent human beings from treating each other the way we treat animals, we have made what he calls the "somewhat arbitrary decision" to single out our own species for different and better treatment. "Does this subject us to the charge ofspeciesism? Of course it does, and we cannot justify it, except by the fact that in the world in which we live, humans make the rules. That reality imposes on us a special responsibility to be fair and compassionate to those on whom we impose our rules. Hence the argument for animal rights."[116]
In June 2018, Dershowitz wrote anop-ed criticizing theAmerican Civil Liberties Union, alleging that it had become a hyper-partisan organization and was no longer the nonpartisan group of politically diverse individuals sharing a commitment to core civil liberties it once was. He wrote, "The move of the ACLU to the hard-left reflects an even more dangerous and more general trend in the United States: the right is moving further right; the left is moving farther left, and the center is shrinking... The ACLU's move from the neutral protector of civil liberties to a partisan advocate of hard-left politics is both a symptom and consequence of this change." He also criticized Trump, writing that by denying fundamental civil liberties, he was also to blame for pushing the ACLU further into partisan politics.[117]
During the2008 Democratic Party primaries, Dershowitz endorsedHillary Clinton, calling her "a progressive on social issues, a realist on foreign policy, a pragmatist on the economy."[118] In 2012, he strongly supported Barack Obama's reelection, writing, "President Obama has earned my vote on the basis of his excellent judicial appointments, his consensus-building foreign policy, and the improvements he has brought about in the disastrous economy he inherited."[119] In 2018, after a photo with Obama andNation of Islam leaderLouis Farrakhan at a 2005 meeting of theCongressional Black Caucus emerged, Dershowitz said he would never have campaigned for Obama had the photo been publicized soon after it was taken.[120]
In the2020 Democratic Party primaries, Dershowitz endorsedJoe Biden. He said: "I'm a strong supporter of Joe Biden. I like Joe Biden. I've liked him for a long time, and I could enthusiastically support Joe Biden." He criticizedBernie Sanders, saying: "I don't think under any circumstances I could vote for a man who went to England and campaigned for a bigot and anti-Semite likeJeremy Corbyn."[121]
Dershowitz has offered commentary onTrump's legal issues that has been polarizing among liberals and Democrats, as he has often been perceived as offering defenses of Trump's more controversial actions.[122] He has maintained that his weighing in is apolitical, saying, "I am a liberal Democrat in politics, but a neutral civil libertarian when it comes to the Constitution."[123]
In January 2018, Dershowitz said that attacking Trump'smental fitness was a "very dangerous" line of attack[124] and that there was "no case" that Trump committedobstruction of justice by firing formerFBI DirectorJames Comey.[125] He called the indictment ofMichael Flynn the strangest he had ever seen because Flynn lied about something that was not illegal, and claimed that "collusion" in reference toRussian meddling in the 2016 election is not a crime.[126] But Dershowitz said that Trump's alleged disclosure of classified information to Russia is "the most serious charge ever made against a sitting president."[77][78] His 2018 bookThe Case Against Impeaching Trump argues against impeachment.[127]
Dershowitz has received some criticism from liberals and praise from conservatives for his comments on these issues.[128][129] He defended Supreme Court nomineeBrett Kavanaugh against accusations byJulie Swetnick that Kavanaugh andMark Judge were at a party where she was gang-raped. Dershowitz said onFox News, "that affidavit is so deeply flawed and so open-ended that any good lawyer, any good defense attorney would be able to tear that apart in 30 seconds".[130] He called on Swetnick's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who was also representingStormy Daniels, to withdraw the affidavit because of inconsistencies.[131][132]
Dershowitz and others recommended that Trump commuteSholom Rubashkin's sentence for bank fraud in theAgriprocessors case.[133]
In 2019, Dershowitz said he would "enthusiastically supportJoe Biden" for president.[134]
In 2021, Dershowitz said that Trump's rally preceding the2021 storming of the United States Capitol was "constitutionally protected" speech. He said it would be his "honor and privilege" to defend Trump in a trial.[135] Trump reportedly considered him for his defense team.[136]
In November 2025Shmuley Boteach sued Dershowitz over comments Dershowitz had made regarding an alleged planned trip toQatar by Boteach.[137]
Shortly after the publication of Dershowitz'sThe Case for Israel (2003),Norman Finkelstein ofDePaul University said the book contained materialplagiarized fromJoan Peters's bookFrom Time Immemorial.[138][139][8] Dershowitz denied the allegation. Harvard's president,Derek Bok, investigated the allegation and determined that no plagiarism had occurred.[140][141] Los Angeles attorney Frank Menetrez wrote an article analyzing the dispute's details that supported Finkelstein's charges, concluding: "I don't see how Dershowitz could, purely by coincidence, have precisely reproduced all of Peters' errors [in quotingThe Innocents Abroad] if he was working from the original Twain."CounterPunch published Dershowitz's response and Menetrez's reply. Dershowitz dismissed the charges as verifiably false and politically motivated by hostility to his support for Israel, and Menetrez reaffirmed his view that the evidence pointed to Dershowitz having plagiarized his sources.[142][143][144]
In October 2006, Dershowitz wrote to DePaul University faculty members to lobby against Finkelstein's application for tenure, accusing Finkelstein of academic dishonesty.[145] The university's Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty voted to send a letter of complaint to Harvard University.[146][8] In June 2007, DePaul University denied Finkelstein tenure.[147]
In March 2006,John Mearsheimer, professor of political science at theUniversity of Chicago, andStephen Walt, professor of international affairs atHarvard Kennedy School, co-wrote a paper titled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", published inThe London Review of Books.[148] Mearsheimer and Walt criticized what they called "the Israel lobby" for influencing U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East in a direction away from U.S. interests and toward Israel's. They referred to Dershowitz specifically as an "apologist" for the Israel lobby. In a March 2006 interview withThe Harvard Crimson, Dershowitz called the article "one-sided" and its authors "liars" and "bigots".[149] The next day, on MSNBC'sScarborough Country, he suggested the paper had been derived from multiple hate sites: "Every paragraph virtually is copied from aneo-Nazi Web site, from a radical Islamic Web site, fromDavid Duke's Web site."[150] Dershowitz subsequently wrote a report challenging the paper, arguing that it contained "three types of major errors: Quotations are wrenched out of context, important facts are misstated or omitted, and embarrassingly weak logic is employed."[151] In a May 2006 letter inThe London Review of Books, Mearsheimer and Walt denied that they had used any racist sources for their article, writing that Dershowitz had failed to offer any evidence to support his claim.[152]
Dershowitz's first wife was Sue Barlach.[153][154] In his bookChutzpah, he described Barlach as an "Orthodox Jewish girl."[153] The two met during high school at aJewish summer camp in the Catskills.[10] They married in 1959, when Dershowitz was 20 and Barlach was 18.[153] Barlach and Dershowitz had two sons together:Elon Dershowitz (1961–2025), a film producer,[155] and Jamin Dershowitz (born 1963),[10] an attorney who is general counsel for theWomen's National Basketball Association (WNBA).[156] Barlach and Dershowitz separated in 1973 and divorced in 1976.[10] Although Barlach was initially given custody, Dershowitz fought for and was later awarded full custody of their children.[10] During the divorce proceedings, Barlach alleged that Dershowitz physically abused her, resulting in the need for medical treatment and therapy.[157]The New Yorker reported that Barlach later worked as a research librarian and "drowned in the East River, in an apparent suicide" on December 31, 1983.[10]
Jamin Dershowitz married a Roman Catholic, which helped prompt Alan Dershowitz to writeThe Vanishing American Jew, dedicated to them and their children, whom Dershowitz regards as Jewish.[19] He has two grandchildren by Jamin.[30]
In 1986, Dershowitz married Carolyn Cohen, a retired neuropsychologist.[158] They have one child, born in 1990.[159] Dershowitz and Cohen divide their time between homes inMartha's Vineyard, Miami Beach, and Manhattan.[160] In 2025, Dershowitz threatened to sue apierogi seller at a Martha's Vineyard farmer's market and called them antisemitic after the seller refused him service on multiple occasions over his connections to Epstein.[161][162][163] The community largely sided with the pierogi seller over Dershowitz and the pierogi seller noted that they (the seller) were Jewish.[164]
Dershowitz was related to Los AngelesConservative rabbiZvi Dershowitz.[165]
In February 2024, Dershowitz signed theJewish Future Promise.[166]
Dershowitz was named aGuggenheim Fellow in 1979, and in 1983 received theWilliam O. Douglas First Amendment Award from theAnti-Defamation League for his work on civil rights.[167] In November 2007, he was awarded the Soviet Jewry Freedom Award by the Russian Jewish Community Foundation.[168] In December 2011, he was awarded theMenachem Begin Award of Honor by theMenachem Begin Heritage Center at an event co-sponsored byNGO Monitor.[169] Dershowitz was honored with a stone in theBrooklyn Botanic Garden's Celebrity Path.[98] He has been awarded honorary doctorates in law from Yeshiva University, the Hebrew Union College, Monmouth University, University of Haifa, Syracuse University, Fitchburg State College, Bar-Ilan University, and Brooklyn College.[3] He is a member of the International Advisory Board ofNGO Monitor.[170]
Dershowitz has appeared as himself in the television seriesPicket Fences,Spin City, andFirst Monday,[171] and in the 2019 documentaryNo Safe Spaces.[172]
In the filmReversal of Fortune (1990), Dershowitz was portrayed byRon Silver.[173]
Evan Handler portrays Dershowitz in the 2016 television seriesThe People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story.[174]
OnSaturday Night Live's January 26, 2020, episode,Jon Lovitz played Dershowitz, who ends up in Hell during anear-death experience, where he encountersJeffrey Epstein.[175]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Cohen is from Boston and in high school became friends with Jamin Dershowitz, the son of Harvard professor and well-known Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz. Cohen and the younger Dershowitz, who is general counsel to the WNBA, are still close.
