Chuck Cooper to Take Over as Counsel to Epstein Accuser in Defamation Lawsuit Against Alan Dershowitz
Cooper's entry to the case showed that Dershowitz "wasn't going to be able to avoid this reckoning," said David Boies, whose firm was disqualified from the case upon a motion from the retired Harvard professor's legal team.
November 01, 2019 at 03:28 PM
4 minute read
Charles "Chuck" Cooper has been brought on to represent an accuser of Jeffrey Epstein in her defamation suit against Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, after David Boies and his firm were removed from the case by a U.S. district judge in the Southern District of New York.
Cooper, a conservative legal luminary, is stepping in to serve as Virginia Giuffre's lawyer after the Boies Schiller Flexner firm was disqualified from the case. Giuffre has said she was trafficked by the deceased financier and forced to have sex with Dershowitz and other powerful men.
Dershowitz has repeatedly and forcefully denied the allegations.
David Boies, in an interview, called Dershowitz' disqualification motion a "ploy" to deprive Giuffre of her counsel and said Cooper's entry to the case showed that Dershowitz "wasn't going to be able to avoid this reckoning."
Cooper, a founding member and chairman of firm Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C., could not be immediately reached for comment for this story.
In his denials of Giuffre's accusations, Dershowitz has called Giuffre a serial liar and a prostitute in multiple rounds of interviews with the national media.
The Boies firm in April filed on Giuffre's behalf a lawsuit against Dershowitz for defamation, claiming those statements were part of a campaign to tarnish her reputation and damage her credibility.
Dershowitz and his team moved to dismiss the suit and lobbied a Manhattan federal judge to disqualify Boies and partner Sigrid McCawley from the case. According to the defense, Boies had met with Dershowitz in 2015 and told the law professor that he did not believe Giuffre's allegations.
Boies and his firm deny that account of the meeting, but Dershowitz nevertheless vowed to call Boies to testify at trial.
Last month, Judge Loretta A. Preska of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Giuffre would be allowed to pursue with her claims but said she would have to proceed without the help of her longtime attorneys. According to Preska, Dershowitz' plans to put Boies on the stand meant that other attorneys from the firm could be forced to offer testimony potentially discrediting their boss' statements and raised the possibility that they would lack the independence to do so.
"At a minimum, the scenario Dershowitz paints—which cannot be disregarded—would be unseemly in the extreme," she wrote.
"Plaintiff's attorneys must be independent and free to challenge the credibility of Boies and other BSF partners in order to test the allegations made in the complaint they drafted and filed," Preska said.
Boies said his team was still considering an appeal of Preska's disqualification ruling but also recognized Giuffre's immediate need for representation. Former foes in the California marriage-equality case, the Cooper and Boies have a long history in the courtroom, and Boies said Cooper was a "natural" selection to fill the role.
"He's an exceptional lawyer," Boies said, who is "willing to take on what is a very vituperative campaign on the other side."
Boies said that he and McCawley would aid in the transition and continue to represent Giuffre in other matters.
Giuffre, has switched to a conservative legal luminary after being represented by a firm perhaps best-known for its advocacy on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000 and successful litigation for marriage equality.
Cooper is currently also representing two former White House advisers involved in the U.S. House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry.
Cooper is currently representing ex-national security adviser Charles Kupperman, who has been subpoenaed by House investigators for testimony in the ongoing impeachment inquiry. He also represents former national security adviser John Bolton, Kupperman's former boss who has been asked to appear for a closed-door interview next week.
He did not immediately return a call to his office Friday seeking comment on the case.
Dershowitz, meanwhile, plans to assert counterclaims against Giuffre for defamation and "other tortious conduct." He previously said he is also mulling whether to file a separate suit against Giuffre.
Both sides are due back in court Nov. 13 for a conference before Preska.
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