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Antisemitism group keeps board member who emailed Epstein on the legality of transporting minors for sex
A lawyer who emailed Jeffrey Epstein on the legality of transporting minors across state lines for sex remains on the board of a group focused on combating antisemitism in higher education, months after his communication to Epstein became public.
Mitchell Webber is on the board of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and has been involved in litigation on behalf of Jewish students.
Now new documents released as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s massive trove of documents relating to the late Epstein’s prosecution for sex trafficking shed light on Webber’s role, working with attorney Alan Dershowitz, in helping Epstein reach favorable deals with prosecutors in connection with investigations into reports that Epstein had sexually abused underage girls.
Webber’s emails to Epstein were first revealed by Bloomberg in September.
“The question is: what would happen if one were to transport a minor for sex — or transport oneself with the intent to have sex with a minor — into a state in which the age of consent is below eighteen (assuming the minor is above the age of consent in the given state)?” Webber wrote in a June 2006 email to Epstein that Bloomberg obtained, which appears to follow up on a phone call. “And your intuition was right. The answer is that there is no violation of law.”
“let’s also look at sex tourism laws,” Epstein later replied. “going someplace with specific intent ot [sic] have underage sex.”
Webber, then a Harvard law student working as a research assistant to Dershowitz, was helping defend Epstein as local police investigated allegations that Epstein had paid a 14-year-old girl for a massage.
Webber told the Forward in a statement that, in his capacity as a research assistant after graduating law school, he “occasionally did research, took notes, and emailed clients on Professor Dershowitz’s behalf. Professor Dershowitz did not use a computer and relied on his administrative assistants and research assistants to email for him.”
He added: “Jeffrey Epstein never asked for my legal opinion or advice. I never provided my legal opinion or advice to Jeffrey Epstein. I only relayed advice from his counsel, Professor Dershowitz.” Webber also said that he never met or socialized with Epstein.
When asked by the Forward about Webber’s account, Dershowitz responded in an emailed statement that he has never used a computer, and that Webber’s email to Epstein “represent[s] my words not his. I would never advise a client to transport anyone for improper purposes. To suggest such a thing would be defamatory and wrong.”
He added, “Webber did research under my direction. I would provide him my interpretation of the law and ask him to find cases that support it. This research was directed exclusively to Epstein’s past conduct as part of my 6th amendment role in defending E against allegations of past misconduct. It had absolutely nothing to do with advising him about future or then current conduct.”
The case ended in a favorable plea agreement for Epstein, and billing records that were part of the new Justice Department release show $21,728 paid to Webber as part of the Dershowitz legal effort. That amount matches the total attributed to Webber in an email to Epstein from Epstein’s accountant in 2009.
In his statement to the Forward, Webber said he “never billed Jeffrey Epstein” and “was never paid by Jeffrey Epstein.” Dershowitz said he paid Webber for his research, “as I did all my research assistants.”
Dershowitz also said he did not recall Webber ever meeting with Epstein. And he bristled at the focus on his former assistant: “Webber did nothing wrong and to suggest otherwise because he did research on a controversial case is pure McCarthyism,” Dershowitz said.
Webber, a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss — which reached a $40 million agreement with the Trump administration in March that included providing free legal work related to antisemitism — joined the Brandeis Center board in 2021 after prominent roles in the first Trump administration and has represented the organization in litigation on behalf of Jewish college students who say they faced discrimination on campus.
He has also lectured for the Brandeis Center on “defining bias.”
The Brandeis Center, which states that its mission includes “the pursuit of justice for all peoples,” did not respond to an email and voicemail asking about its knowledge of Webber’s work for Epstein and whether the recent revelations would impact his role on the board.
In the mix
The newly released documents illuminate Webber’s role in navigating toward the favorable deal between Epstein and federal and state prosecutors in 2008.
Local police had originally referred the case to FBI, which concluded that Epstein had abused more than a dozen teenage girls over a six-year period and recommended 32 federal charges. In 2007, however, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in southern Florida agreed to drop those charges and grant Epstein federal immunity in exchange for him pleading guilty to two state-level offenses. Epstein ultimately served 13 months in a minimum-security jail, where he was permitted to leave for up to 12 hours a day for work.
Emails and depositions depict Webber as part of the defense that negotiated Epstein’s agreement — taking notes for Dershowitz, researching legal strategy, and at times communicating directly with Epstein himself.
According to an internal FBI report included in the DOJ release, a confidential informant told FBI agents that Webber spoke “all the time” with Ghislane Maxwell, who was later convicted of child sex trafficking related to her work with Epstein, during the plea deal negotiations.
“Webber would be a good person to talk to who would have useful information about Maxwell,” the FBI agent who interviewed the informant wrote.
“No matter what happened between Epstein and his masseuses, the fact that they kept coming back militates powerfully against any sort of pressure on Epstein’s part,” Webber wrote in a November 2006 email that appeared in Epstein’s inbox, as published by Bloomberg.
In a 2016 deposition released by the Department of Justice, Dershowitz recalled attending a meeting with the Florida state attorney’s office, which was prosecuting Epstein for sex crimes, where he said Webber was present.
Webber “had done some of the research for me on the case,” Dershowitz said. The meeting had the goal of showing that others accused of similar sex crimes to Epstein had not been sentenced to prison. Dershowitz said Webber took notes at the meeting but did not participate.
In another document included in the DOJ release, Dershowitz responded to what appeared to be a journalist’s questions about allegations that Dershowitz visited Epstein’s Palm Beach home while several nude girls were present, and that one was forced to have sex with him on another occasion on the island of Little St. James. Dershowitz denied the allegations, writing in the document that he had only visited a handful of times — including once when Webber accompanied him to Epstein’s Palm Beach home while working on the case.
Webber later advocated for Dershowitz as he faced allegations of sexual assault from Epstein victim Virginia Guiffre, including in a 2015 letter to a National Review journalist supporting Dershowitz’s defense. Dershowitz sued Guiffre for defamation, and she later dropped her claims, saying she may have “made a mistake” in accusing Dershowitz.
From Dershowitz’s assistant to White House
As a student at Harvard Law, Webber said Dershowitz inspired him to become a lawyer — and joked about his mentor’s confrontational style.
“Letters addressed to ‘Asshole, Harvard Law School’ get to him,” Webber told an audience at a Jewish National Fund event honoring Dershowitz in 2005, according to the Harvard Crimson.
Webber’s work for Dershowitz propelled him into elite conservative legal circles: He served as associate counsel and special assistant to President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2021, and in 2021 Trump appointed him to a five-year term on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. That same year, Webber joined the board of the Brandeis Center, where he has also represented the group in litigation.
“We have worked with Mitch Webber for several years, and he is one of the best and smartest lawyers in the field,” Kenneth Marcus, the Brandeis Center’s founder and chairman, said after Weber was appointed to the board in 2021.
The post Antisemitism group keeps board member who emailed Epstein on the legality of transporting minors for sex appeared first on The Forward.
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Jewish Advocacy Groups Sue California Over K-12 Antisemitism
Students from Encinal High School and St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California, participating in anti-Israel demonstration on Jan 26. 2024: Photo: Michael Ho Wai Lee / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
A coalition of leading Jewish advocacy organizations is suing the state of California for allegedly failing to address “systemic” antisemitic discrimination in K-12 public schools.
Led by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and StandWithUs, the legal action stems from consecutive years of antisemitic abused perpetrated against Jewish students, parents, and teachers by anti-Zionists at every level of the school system. Court documents shared with The Algemeiner earlier this week revealed new, harrowing accusations of Jews being called “k—kes,” Jewish students being threatened with gang assaults, and K-12 students chanting “F—k the Jews” during anti-Israel demonstrations promoted by faculty.
In one highly disturbing incident described in the legal complaint, fifth graders from the Oakland Unified School District were filmed by the teacher saying “Another major thing that I’ve learned is that the Jews, the people who took over, basically just stole the Palestinians’ land” and “one thing that’s really surprising to me, and that appeals to me is that the US is helping the Jews.” In another incident, the Oakland Education Association confected a curriculum in which the intifada — two prolonged periods of terrorism in which Palestinians murdered Israeli civilians — was taught to third graders as a nursery rhyme.
“The California education system is teaching the state’s children that Jewish Americans and Israelis are racists, white supremacists, oppressors, and baby-killers who should be shunned,” Brandeis Center chairman and former US assistant secretary of education for civil rights Kenneth Marcus said in a statement on Thursday. “The result is not surprising: Jewish children and children perceived as Jewish are bullied and excluded by their peers and harassed by their teachers, who silence, mock, and even segregate them if they speak out. School officials have done little or nothing at all to help these children.”
Litigation related to antisemitic incidents in California K-12 schools surged following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, which triggered a barrage of antisemitic hate crimes throughout the US and the world. The list of outrages includes a student group chanting “Kill the Jews” during an anti-Israel protest and partisan activists smuggling far-left, anti-Zionist content into classrooms without clearing the content with parents and other stakeholders.
Elsewhere in California, K-12 antisemitism has caused severe psychological trauma to Jewish students as young as eight years old and fostered a hostile learning environment, according to complaints
In the Berkeley United School District (BUSD), teachers have allegedly used their classrooms to promote antisemitic stereotypes about Israel, weaponizing disciplines such as art and history to convince unsuspecting minors that Israel is a “settler-colonial” apartheid state committing a genocide of Palestinians. While this took place, high level BUSD officials were accused of ignoring complaints about discrimination and tacitly approving hateful conduct even as it spread throughout the student body.
At Berkeley High School, for example, a history teacher forced students to explain why Israel is an apartheid state and screened an anti-Zionist documentary, according to a lawsuit filed last year by the Brandeis Center and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The teacher allegedly squelched dissent, telling a Jewish student who raised concerns about the content of her lessons that only anti-Zionist narratives matter in her classroom and that any other which argues that Israel isn’t an apartheid state is “laughable.” Elsewhere in the school, an art teacher, whose name is redacted from the complaint for matters of privacy, displayed anti-Israel artworks in his classroom, one of which showed a fist punching through a Star of David.
In September 2023, the Brandeis Center, along with the ADL and the American Jewish Committee (AJC), sued the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) in California for concealing from the public its adoption of ethnic studies curricula containing antisemitic and anti-Zionist themes. Then last February, the school district paused implementation of the program to settle the lawsuit. One month later, the Brandeis Center, StandWithUs, and the ADL filed a civil rights complaint accusing the Etiwanda School District in San Bernardino County, California, of doing nothing after a 12-year-old Jewish girl was assaulted, having been beaten with stick, on school grounds and teased with jokes about Adolf Hitler.
“Jews consistently are being targeted with hostility because of who they are, including in California and particularly in K-12 public schools. This lawsuit seeks to remedy that,” StandWithUs chief executive officer Roz Rothstein said in Thursday’s press release. “It is imperative that California K-12 schools not be co-opted by those seeking to indoctrinate students into antisemitic hate. However, Jewish students and parents indicate that this is precisely what is happening in California. Shockingly, those tasked with enforcing non-discrimination laws in our schools have failed to intervene effectively to put a stop to this growing problem.”
She added, “This lawsuit was necessitated by that systemic failure and seeks to ensure, going forward, that California’s Jewish students are protected and have access to an education free from discrimination.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Jewish Olympic Gold Medalist Jack Hughes Honored by New Jersey Devils as NHL Season Resumes
Jan 23, 2026; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes (86) handles the puck against the Vancouver Canucks in the first period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Photo: Bob Frid-Imagn Images via Reuters
Jewish Olympic hockey player Jack Hughes was honored by his team the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night before their loss to the Buffalo Sabres in Newark.
Ahead of the game, the Devils showed on the Jumbotron a video of Hughes, 24, scoring the overtime goal that secured the United States its 2-1 victory and gold medal over Canada on Sunday in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. Hughes lost a few teeth during the game when he took a high stick to the mouth from Canada’s Sam Bennett during the third period. The win marked the first time a US men’s hockey team had won gold at the Olympics since a 1980 victory against the former Soviet Union.
“I’m so proud and so happy that the men’s and women’s USA hockey teams brought gold medals back to America,” Hughes told the crowd in a pre-game speech on Wednesday given from the ice, while he held back tears. “And I’m so proud to represent the New Jersey Devils organization and to represent the great state of New Jersey. From the bottom of my heart, all of my [Team] USA teammates, we want to thank you for all the love and support. We feel it. Thank you.”
The Devils center — whose mother is Jewish while his father is Catholic — arrived in New Jersey late Tuesday night after US President Donald Trump recognized him and his Olympic teammates in the State of the Union address. Hughes played Wednesday night as Buffalo won for the seventh time in 10 games, 2-1, on goals from US Olympian Tage Thompson and Peyton Krebs. The NHL restarted its season on Wednesday after taking a break due to the Olympic Games in Milan.
On Thursday, before the New Jersey Devils took on the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena, Hughes received a standing ovation as the Penguins honored athletes who represented their countries at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Earlier in the week, the popular Hobby’s Delicatessen & Restaurant located blocks away from Newark’s Prudential Center, which is home to the New Jersey Devils, named a sandwich after Hughes. The owners said “Jack’s Golden Goal Sandwich,” which features roast beef and “golden sauteed onions” on a soft roll, is “so tender, you don’t need teeth.”
Trump announced during Tuesday night’s State of the Union that Connor Hellebuyck, the goaltender for the US men’s Olympic hockey team that won gold, will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hellebuyck made 41 saves in the Olympic game against Canada on Sunday and also assisted on the overtime goal by Hughes that led to the team’s gold medal win.
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Zachary Levi Hosts New Fox Nation Docu-Drama Series About King David
A scene from “David: King of Israel.” Photo: YouTube screenshot
Actor Zachary Levi hosts a Fox Nation original series that premiered on Thursday about the life and legacy of the Bible’s King David.
The four-part docu-drama “David: King of Israel” begins with the episode “The Shepherd,” which tells the story of David as a young shepherd in Bethlehem who kills a lion and a bear to protect his flock.
Episode two, “King of Israel,” premieres on March 5 and explores the aftermath of David’s fight with the giant Goliath, which is described in the Book of Samuel. The third episode will premiere on March 12, and the finale airs March 19. The series features reenactments about King David’s life and expert commentary intertwined with Levi’s narration.
Born in 907 BCE, David was chosen by God and anointed by the Prophet Samuel to one day be Israel’s new king. He reigned as the king of Israel for 40 years and is one of the most important figures in Jewish history. Christians also regard him as the ancestor of Jesus.
“Highlighting faith, redemption, and extraordinary purpose, we’re honored to bring this story to Fox Nation with Zachary at the helm,” said Fox Nation President Lauren Petterson about the four-part series.
“Aside from the account of Christ, the story of David is the most powerful in all of scripture,” added Levi. “In fact, one might argue that it’s even more powerful in some ways, given that David was fully human, and therefore flawed, like us, making his journey more relatable to our own. It’s a story I’ve wanted to be a part of telling ever since I was a child, so it was such a blessing being a part of this production.”
Levi, the “Shazam!” star, who is not Jewish, told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday he grew up in a Christian home and “reading my Bible and David was the story that always stood out to me as the most epic, the most amazing.”
“It can be difficult to relate to Jesus. David is us. David is a person who is called a man after God’s own heart,” he added. The actor, who has a SAG Award for his role in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” also said the four-part series is “like Lord of the Rings in the Bible.”
“You got giants and witches and all kinds of, you know, it’s cool and there’s massive battles, nation upon nation and good versus evil and all the spiritual elements of everything,” said Levi. “It’s a really fascinating story, even if you’re not within the Judeo-Christian lineage.”