Ex-justice minister Alan Shatter sues TD Paul Murphy over Epstein claims

Former minister for justice Alan Shatter has filed a High Court defamation action against People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy over an X post that alleged he had met the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The legal action was filed by Shatter yesterday, with solicitors John C Walsh and Co representing the former Fine Gael TD.

Shatter was subjected to a tirade of false allegations and anti-Semitic abuse in January and February after a new tranche of Epstein files were released by the US department of justice.

On various social media platforms, a US department of justice document containing a 2011 travel itinerary of Eric Holder, former president Barack Obama’s attorney general, was falsely claimed to be the itinerary of Epstein, the convicted sex offender.

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Holder’s itinerary showed him meeting Shatter and Brian Purcell, the then secretary general of the Department of Justice, on a visit to Ireland in September 2011.

Users on X erroneously claimed the itinerary was part of the Epstein files and showed Epstein had met Shatter at the Department of Justice.

Shatter last month received a payment of damages and an apology from the Social Democrats and its justice spokesman Gary Gannon over an Instagram post that falsely portrayed Shatter as having met Epstein.

In a now deleted post, Murphy reposted another user who questioned why RTÉ was not reporting Epstein’s supposed meeting with Shatter in 2011. The post contained a photograph of Epstein playing the piano and a separate photograph of Shatter.

[ Alan Shatter to take defamation case against TD Paul Murphy over Epstein claimsOpens in new window ]

Epstein, who died by apparent suicide in prison in 2019, was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.

Shatter, who was minister of justice from 2011 to 2014, and who never met Epstein, told The Irish Times last week that court proceedings against Murphy were being prepared.

“I expect they will be served by my solicitors in the coming week either directly on the deputy or furnished to his solicitors if they accept service of proceedings,” he said.

Murphy said he would not be commenting for now when asked about Shatter’s legal complaint.