Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax’s Wake Up America that the much-anticipated dump of Jeffrey Epstein files won’t be the smoking-gun exposé that the mob online and in the press have been promising. He explained plainly that there was never a neat “client list” for Epstein to hand over, and that judges—not the Justice Department—have redacted names for legal reasons, leaving the public to piece together fragments.
Dershowitz, who represented Epstein in the past, pushed back hard against the fevered conspiracy narrative and insisted the so-called black book myth is just that—a myth. He said investigators interviewed witnesses and courts redacted identities, and from his read of the records there are no current elected officials as part of a secret cabal; many of the names are dead or retired. Conservatives should listen when a seasoned lawyer warns against leaping to conclusions based on hearsay and publicity stunts.
Those reassurances line up with a brief DOJ-FBI memo that concluded investigators found no incriminating “client list” or credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed influential figures, and suggested no further disclosures were warranted. Whether you trust that bureaucratic pronouncement or not, it’s undeniable that the government’s handling of sensitive, sealed material has legal limits and responsibilities—especially when those records include intimate material involving victims. The debate shouldn’t be about grand conspiracies; it should be about law, evidence, and victims’ dignity.
Dershowitz also issued a blunt warning about the real danger facing our country: a return to McCarthy-style hysteria where accusation becomes conviction without trial. Conservatives must be the first to condemn weaponized allegations and the erosion of due process, because a system that allows reputations to be destroyed on rumor will ultimately devour the innocent and chill speech for everyone. We cannot let a handful of cable hosts and social media mobs substitute for courts and facts.
At the same time, Dershowitz has argued that transparency must go both ways—if names and allegations are released, so should the identities or credibility details of accusers, so Americans can judge the full context. That’s commonsense fairness, not victim-blaming: the marketplace of ideas requires information on both sides to prevent selective leaks from becoming political hangings. The media’s appetite for drama has too often overridden its obligation to fairness, and conservatives should call that out loudly.
The politics around these files have been explosive, with President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi drawn into the controversy as calls for disclosure rose and then met resistance from law-enforcement reviews. Conservatives rightly want transparency and accountability, but we also have to be skeptical when transparency is weaponized or when bureaucrats suddenly declare a case closed after political pressure. The goal must be a lawful, complete accounting that respects victims and protects the presumption of innocence.
Americans who love liberty should stand with Dershowitz’s basic message: demand the truth, but demand it the right way. Reject the left’s rush to vilify without evidence and resist the siren call of public shaming that substitutes for due process. If we care about justice for victims and fairness for the accused, we will insist on full, lawful disclosure where appropriate and defend our institutions against a new McCarthyism.
