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Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes was in Florida on Tuesday, participating in the deposition of Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, who is battling dueling defamation lawsuits with University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell.
The attorney general's office has been representing Cassell in a defamation case in Florida since June, according to a press release from their office.
The defamation suit arose out of a federal lawsuit where Cassell and co-counsel Bradley Edwards sued the United States claiming they violated the Crime Victims Reparation Act in the prosecution of billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein by failing to consult with two sex-trafficking victims before settling Epstein's case with a plea deal.
The two attorneys also filed a sworn statement in the lawsuit from a third victim seeking to join the case, in which she claimed Epstein made her into a sex slave and trafficked her to powerful people, such as Dershowitz and Britain's Prince Andrew, who has denied the allegation.
Dershowitz also has denied the allegations, calling them "categorically false" and "contemptible," and has accused Cassell and Edwards of unethical behavior that warrants disbarment.
Cassell and Edwards fired back with a defamation suit, alleging Dershowitz had initiated a "massive public media assault" on their reputations and characters.
Derschowitz then counter-sued, alleging he was defamed by the victim statements that Cassell and Edwards filed.
Reyes participated in Derschowitz's Tuesday deposition in Ft. Lauderdale, according to the press release, which said his office defends all state employees when they are sued for monetary damages for actions arising out of their state employment.