Right-wing media personality Megyn Kelly is facing backlash after her defense of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, claiming that he was possibly “not a pedophile.”
“I do know somebody very, very close to this case who is in a position to know virtually everything,” Kelly said on the most recent episode of her podcast. “And this person has told me from the start, years and years ago, that Jeffrey Epstein, in this person’s view, was not a pedophile.”
She went on to add, “This is this person’s view, who was there for a lot of this, but that he was into the barely legal type. Like, he liked 15-year-old girls. I’m just giving you facts that he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds. But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passerby.”
Epstein was found guilty of soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida in 2008, and was awaiting trial after being charged with trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors for sex in New York in 2019 before dying of an apparent suicide in his cell.
Kelly would double down, proclaiming that she had difficulty believing Attorney General Pam Bondi. “For the first time, I thought, oh, no, he was an actual pedophile,” Kelly said. “I don’t know whether it’s true. I have to be honest, I don’t really trust Pam Bondi’s word on the Epstein matters anymore.”
The comments drew sharp criticism, with observers noting that Kelly might’ve seriously damaged her career. “This is career-ending for Megyn Kelly,” Democratic strategist Ally Sammarco said to the Daily Beast. “Fifteen-year-olds are CHILDREN. They can’t drive. They can’t see rated R movies. But disgusting 50-year-old men should be allowed to rape them? Goodbye. Forever.”
Others called it another sign that supporters of President Donald Trump (who has become more prominent in recent releases from the Epstein files) are willing to even defend child sex abuse. Journalist Sarah Spain wrote in a post on BlueSky: “These people will literally go on tv essentially defending a grown man sleeping with 15 year-olds (rape, FYI!) in service of a political allegiance. At this point how can anyone say this isn’t a cult?”
