Lawyer Alan Dershowitz said on an episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored that he would sue YouTuber Mohammed Hijab for “defamation” after the Islamic activist accused him of being a pervert live on air.
Dershowitz and Hijab, who has 1.27 million subscribers on YouTube, were invited on Morgan’s chat show for a debate about the conflict in the Middle East, where the conversation quickly descended into a heated argument.
Hijab accused Morgan of taking Dershowitz’s side in the debate before calling the lawyer a pervert because of his role defending sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who he helped to secure a non-prosecution agreement for in 2006.
Addressing Morgan, Hijab said: “You’re defending him. You’re defending a monster, a pervert, an old pervert.”
Dershowitz interjected and announced he would sue the influencer for defamation in both an American and a British court.
“He just called me a pervert, he will be sued now for defamation and we will be able to resolve this in a court of law. I guarantee you that he will be sued for calling me a pervert.
“The woman who falsely accused me has now withdrawn her accusation and acknowledged that she may have confused me with somebody else, and calling me a pervert will result in a defamation lawsuit in an American court and in a British court, I assure you of that.”
Virginia Giuffre, who was trafficked as a girl by Epstein, accused Dershowitz of abusing her and filed a defamation case against the lawyer in 2019, who denied the allegations and counter-sued her. In 2022, the suits were settled with Giuffre stating: "I now recognise I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr Dershowitz."
After announcing he would sue Hijab, the lawyer said: “Let’s move onto Israel”.
Interrupting Dershowitz, Hijab said he knew the law very well, and said that he would not be threatened.
“I’m ready for the lawsuit,” he said. “I believe you’re an old pervert.”
He also said that “defamation is honest opinion”, and said the UK had a different definition to that used by the US.
At the beginning of the debate, Hijab compared Dershowitz’s defence of Israel to his work as an attorney defending Epstein.
“Wherever we see suffering, wherever we see death and destruction, especially of young people, sexual assault, we see Dershowitz to the rescue, the former defence attorney of Jeffrey Epstein.”
In 2021, Hijab was accused of inciting antisemitism by the Community Security Trust (CST) after he filmed himself with a billboard in Golders Green saying: “Did we not learn from the Holocaust?” and questioning Jewish passers-by about Israel.
