No, the work was eligible. I doubt Dershowitz's petition had any sway over the board. Frankly, while Julie Brown's reporting was astounding, there were better work. The Herald was a finalist for a story they did about gold.
To be clear, I'm not saying he is accurate. I just don't know enough either way. He's obviously an interested party to the whole story.
[1] https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14003/pulitzer-prize-fake...
The man pretends to be an intellectual, but makes a mockery of it. It’s really a shame that Harvard continues to lend him its institutional credibility, and that other respected institutions invite him to comment about anything ever.
(I have no insight about the Epstein stuff; I’m just talking about his past public debates about a variety of legal and political topics.)