Alan Dershowitz Takes on His Greatest Challenge Yet: A Farmers’ Market
It was an unusually warm day on Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday, and Alan Dershowitz just wanted to enjoy some hot dumplings.
As he tells it, Dershowitz, the 86-year-old attorney for some of America’s most controversial defendants, was at the farmers’ market in the town of West Tisbury, waiting for a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, when he walked over to a pierogi stand and asked for half a dozen. But he was told he could not buy them. “I just won’t sell them to you,” Dershowitz said, paraphrasing the vendor. “I don’t approve of your politics. I don’t approve of who you represented.”
After being denied service, Dershowitz went home to record a 30-minute video on the matter, complete with a compelling teaser:
Bigoted vendor @ Martha's Vineyard Farmer's Market refused to sell to me for political reasons. I'm suing. Watch the Dershow live @ 5:30pm est on Rumble and Youtube. Become part of the conversation.https://t.co/aChAMuitiT
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) July 30, 2025
Dershowitz said is was “pure McCarthyism” to not be served because of his political beliefs. He said it was likely because he represented Donald Trump at one of his impeachment trials or because of his ardent Zionism. The week before, Dershowitz was wearing his T-shirt that said “Proud American Zionist” on it. “I recall that he looked at it strangely,” the lawyer said. Now, Dershowitz says he intends to “take legal action against the farmers’ market to ensure they only have booths by people who will sell to everybody.” Though Dershowitz may still have a hard time on his preferred vacation island, where he has been a pariah for years.
Eventually during the disagreement, a third party came up and told Dershowitz to use the pronoun “they” for the pierogi salesperson. When the police arrived, they also advised Dershowitz to use non-gendered pronouns. Dershowitz was hesitant. “I’ll use whatever language I choose to use,” he told the police. “That’s a matter between me and my grammarian — not anything the police should have anything to say over.”
Dershowitz does not mention in the video that his most notorious client — beyond Trump, beyond O.J. Simpson — was Jeffrey Epstein. Back in 2008, he was on the legal team that got the convicted sex offender the sweetheart deal that allowed him to treat prison as a sleepaway camp and granted immunity to any co-conspirators. The pierogi vendor did not respond to requests for comment, but people aren’t really talking about O.J. Simpson or the Trump impeachments right now. But there are many Americans who remain furious over Epstein’s many connections to the sitting president, who is trying desperately to put the story behind him.
Related