CONCLUSION
It Could Happen to You!
What have I learned from being falsely accused of heinous crimes by women I never even met? After more than half a century of representing hundreds of accused defendants—some of whom were guilty, others innocent—I finally learned what it actually feels like to be a totally innocent and falsely accused defendant. Although I haven’t been accused of any crime by a prosecutor and don’t face a criminal prosecution, in some ways it’s worse to be accused by an individual woman in the age of #MeToo. A criminal defendant has the opportunity prove that he is not guilty. A man falsely accused of sexual misconduct by a woman has far less opportunity.
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I know I did absolutely nothing criminal or even wrong. I’m proud of the way I’ve conducted my private and professional life during my long career as a professor, lawyer and public intellectual. But many people, mostly strangers, actually believe—despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary—that I had sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre when she was underage, and with Sarah Ransome when she was 22. The social media are replete with tweets and messages calling me a “pedophile,” a “baby-f..ker,” and a “pervert.” It’s a horrible feeling to know that people not only believe—they “know”—that I did something that I myself would regard as reprehensible.
In the introduction to this book, I asked the reader “simply to assume”—before seeing the evidence—my innocence, in order to “imagine how you would feel” if falsely accused. Now that the reader has been presented with the indisputable evidence of my innocence and the total absence of any evidence of guilt, that assumption should become a certainty. Every reasonable reader should agree that I am the victim here—the victim of a perjurious frame-up by women with long and continuing histories of lying for money about prominent men. Readers should also agree that these women, Giuffre and Ransome, as well as their lawyers, should be investigated for the roles they played in these criminal activities.
Yet, there will be some who will be unwilling or unable to disbelieve a false accusation by a woman, regardless of the evidence and lack thereof. There will be others—like the reporter from the Daily Beast—who know I have been falsely accused but lack the courage to take on the #MeToo movement even in a case as clear as mine. If my evidence is not enough, then no evidence will ever be enough to prove innocence. If this state of evidence is allowed to become the new basis for determining guilt, then we will surely have moved to an age of guilt by accusation, rather than by proof.
The important lesson for all Americans is that if this can happen to me—if I can be falsely accused and have my reputation tarnished by a frame-up plot with no evidentiary support—it could happen to anyone: to you, to your son, to your father, and even to your daughter.
I have the resources and the determination to fight back and to clear my name, though it has cost me a small fortune. David Boies has told people that even if he can’t defeat me in court, he can “bankrupt” me with legal fees. He and his giant law firm have the capacity to bankrupt individual opponents by filing frivolous or insubstantial lawsuits. They have a sordid history of bullying, of conflicts of interest and of other ethical violations.75 Boies will stop at nothing to even perceived scores, even if it hurts his law firm, as his vendetta against me has done, much to the chagrin of several of Boies’s partners, who are furious at him for what one has characterized as his “Ahab-like obsessions with killing the white whale”—namely me.
They know that I will do everything legal and ethical to clear my name and prove his complicity with evil. If he and his clients are allowed to get away with their plot to falsely accuse me, it would open the door to more false accusations against innocent people who do not have the resources to fight back.
The Federal court has now ruled that Boies and his law firm are disqualified from representing Giuffre against me. Boies will be a crucial witness in my trial. If he tells the truth, he will be a witness to my total innocence, and the falsity of the accusations against me.
This is everyone’s battle, not just mine. It is a battle for justice for all. It is a struggle against those who bear false witness. The Bible commands, “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” The word justice is repeated, because there must be justice both for the victim of false accusations and for those who falsely accuse. I will not rest until “justice” comes to me, as well as to those who have borne false witness against me.