Alan Dershowitz’s account shifts blame away from presidents and federal agencies and toward the judiciary itself. He maintains there is no mystical “client list,” only FBI affidavits where victims named alleged abusers, later blacked out under court order. In his view, two Manhattan judges have become the true censors, claiming to protect accusers’ privacy while, intentionally or not, preserving an aura of impunity around the powerful.

Their choices collide with a public that no longer trusts sealed files or institutional promises. Judges in Florida and New York continue to block access to grand jury records and older investigative materials, even as journalists and authors circulate many of the same names in print. That contradiction fuels suspicion: if so much is already known, what justifies the blackout? The fight over these records is no longer just about Epstein; it is a referendum on whether courts answer to citizens, or only to themselves.