ABC News reports:

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., called it “unacceptable” Tuesday that attorney Alan Dershowitz failed to appear Monday for a scheduled transcribed interview as part of the committee’s probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Your counsel failed to provide a reason for your refusal to testify,” Comer wrote In a letter sent Tuesday to Dershowitz. “When Committee staff followed up with your counsel via email on July 15 and 17, 2026, your counsel again failed to provide an explanation for your refusal to attend your transcribed interview.”

“This is unacceptable,” Comer wrote.

In a brief phone call with ABC News last Friday, Dershowitz said his lawyers “instructed him that he is not permitted to testify at this time.”

He declined to provide additional details about the reason or when it might be rescheduled.

Dershowitz was a member of a legal team that represented Epstein during multiple investigations of the now-deceased sex offender, beginning in the mid 2000s.

Comer requested that Dershowitz appear for a videotaped transcribed interview after he consulted with several Epstein victims following the appearance before the panel of Epstein’s former executive secretary Lesley Groff.

“We will have questions for him,” Comer said of Dershowitz on June 10. “We’re going to give him an opportunity to come in and answer several, several questions that arose yesterday based on Ms. Groff’s testimony and some things that some of the Epstein survivors said.”

Dershowitz previously said he was eager to appear before the House panel regarding his work representing Epstein, saying he “has a lot of relevant information” about the disgraced financier.

In a phone interview with ABC News in early June, Dershowitz said he was “shocked” that the committee had not yet reached out to schedule an interview. [Continue reading…]