“Justice for Survivors”: UltraViolet Mobile Billboard Condemns Award for Epstein Enabler Alan Dershowitz
For Immediate Release: February 11, 2025
Contact: Ricardo Ramírez | media@fwdshift.com (UltraViolet)
“Justice for Survivors”: UltraViolet Mobile Billboard Condemns Award for Epstein Enabler Alan Dershowitz
A mobile billboard denouncing his enabling of Epstein and attacking of survivors cruised for hours outside the South Florida resort where Alan Dershowitz is scheduled to receive an award.
UltraViolet, a leading national women-led gender-justice organization responsible for numerous impactful campaigns that create a cost for sexism and sexual violence, released the following statement after the launch of a mobile billboard protesting a RealClear Media Fund ceremony bestowing a “First Amendment Courage” award to Epstein enabler Alan Dershowitz:
“For someone like Dershowitz, who gutlessly enabled Epstein even after the world knew him for the monster he was, to receive an award for courage is a debasement of the word itself and our collective values,” said Elisa Batista, campaign director for UltraViolet. “Cowards don’t deserve ‘Courage’ awards—survivors do.”
The digital mobile truck billboard set off at 12 p.m. for a six-hour cruise down Ocean Boulevard between Mar-a-Lago and The Breakers Palm Beach Resort, where it will remain throughout the gala and award ceremony and serve as a reminder of Dershowitz’s role in enabling Jeffrey Epstein’s globe-spanning sex trafficking network.
Dershowitz was the attorney who helped secure a cushy plea deal for Epstein in 2008. That deal, which amounted to a slap on the wrist, allowed Epstein to go on to abuse even more young women and girls until his death in 2019.
“To present an award in the name of free speech to an Epstein enabler at a time when the Trump administration continues to refuse to fully release the Epstein files—the significance of that isn’t lost on us, or survivors,” said Elisa Batista, campaign director for UltraViolet. “This entire gala is an exercise in insulating powerful men like Dershowitz from accountability.”
Dershowitz’s supposed role as a champion of free speech becomes even more farcical when considering his action against Epstein survivor Virginia Guiffre, whom he countersued for defamation after claims that she was abused by Dershowitz when she was underage (while two other Epstein survivors said they saw Dershowitz at Epstein’s home when other girls were present). Predictably, Giuffre dropped her case not long after.
If all of this weren’t horrific and hypocritical enough, in 1997, Dershowitz penned a Los Angeles Times Op-Ed arguing to lower the age for consent to 15, and even noted “reasonable people can disagree whether it should be as low as 14.”
“While RealClear Media honors Dershowitz, UltraViolet’s mobile billboard truck serves as a reminder that survivors are powerful and we won’t let Epstein’s enablers off the hook,” said Elisa Batista, campaign director for UltraViolet. “We will continue to stand with survivors and fight to center their voices, to make sure their bravery is not forgotten.”
UltraViolet is a leading national women-led gender-justice organization responsible for numerous impactful victories against sexual predators such as Harvey Weinstein, R Kelly, and Bill O’Reilly. The organization received a mention in the movie She Said for tipping off The New York Times to Weinstein’s serial sexual abuse.
Most recently, UltraViolet published a petition calling on Harvard University to stop inviting Dershowitz to its campus. The University has come under fire for having accepted $9 million in donations from Epstein, as well as its faculty, staff, and affiliates–including Dershowitz–had close ties with the late pedophile.
Follow our work, including photos and video of the billboard, on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky.
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UltraViolet Education Fund is a women-led gender justice 501c3 organization, with an online community of hundreds of thousands of members nationwide. We combine organizing, technology, creative campaigning, and people power to win real-world changes for women and gender expansive people.
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