Larry David has spoken out about his fractured friendship with Alan Dershowitz, telling The Atlantic that the former Harvard Law professor “made a deal with the devil” when he became Donald Trump’s lawyer.
In a new profile of Dershowitz published Tuesday, David said he has no regrets about confronting his ex-friend on Martha’s Vineyard in 2021, when he called Dershowitz “disgusting” outside the Chilmark General Store. “I have lots of confrontations on my show but rarely in life,” David said. “And then only if I think I can take them in a fight. Hence the Dershowitz dust-up.”
David and Dershowitz were neighbors and friends for years on the island. Dershowitz, who has represented Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, O.J. Simpson and Harvey Weinstein, told The Atlantic that the two used to have dinner together and that David even worked out in his gym. “Larry David doesn’t talk to me anymore,” Dershowitz said. “He screams and yells at me when he sees me.”
The profile also revisits the death of Dershowitz’s son, Elon, who died last year at 64 after a stroke. Dershowitz said David never reached out. David acknowledged his failure. “He’s 100 percent right,” David said. “I should have reached out, and I certainly regret not doing so. As I said on Curb once, ‘I think of nice things. I just don’t act on them.'”
David said he was “starting to feel a little sorry” for Dershowitz, “certainly because of his son.” But in a follow-up email to The Atlantic, he struck a harsher tone. “I’m loath to say anything mean because he’s been so ostracized,” David wrote. “But he only has himself to blame. He made a deal with the devil. Literally. And I’d bet the devil hasn’t said a word to him since the impeachment.”
Dershowitz served on Trump’s defense team during the first impeachment trial in 2020. He has been largely shunned by the liberal summer community on Martha’s Vineyard, a rift he attributes to his support for Israel and his clients. In April, Dershowitz announced he was leaving the Democratic Party, which he called the “most anti-Israel party in US history.”
The Atlantic piece describes Dershowitz’s new life on the island, including his involvement with a local Chabad and his claim that he is treated warmly in other towns but coldly in Chilmark. “It’s all Chilmark,” Dershowitz said. “And it’s all Jewish, anti-Zionist.”
David, 79, said he does not understand why Dershowitz continues to dwell on their split. “I don’t know why he’s still thinking and talking about me,” he told The Atlantic.
