American media personality Megyn Kelly is facing intense criticism after her recent comments appeared to downplay Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes.
The conservative broadcaster discussed newly released Epstein emails by the House Oversight Committee on The Megyn Kelly Show.
The emails were shared between the convicted sex offender, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is doing jail time for child sex trafficking, and Trump biographer Michael Wolff.
Highlights
- Megyn Kelly sparked backlash for suggesting Epstein wasn’t a pedophile but focused on ‘barely legal’ teen victims.
- Kelly cited an anonymous source claiming Epstein was not a pedophile but interested in girls around 15 years old, stirring controversy.
- House Oversight emails linked Epstein to Trump but Kelly denied evidence showed Trump’s wrongdoing in the sex abuse cases.
Megyn Kelly has received backlash after her comments seemed to downplay Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes
Image credits: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Kelly, speaking to journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon on the show, said, “[Epstein] did like them young, and there were several young women who he did this to who were minors, who were underage. There’s just no question about that.”
She then cited an anonymous source that was “very, very close to this case” and “in a position to know virtually everything,” who told Kelly that Jeffrey Epstein “was not a pedophile.”
“This is this person’s view, who was there for a lot of this, but he was into the barely legal type. Like, he liked 15-year-old girls,” Kelly argued.
The term ‘barely legal’ refers to a person who has reached the legal age of adulthood by a very small margin.
“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,” Kelly said, while justifying that she realizes that Epstein’s actions are disgusting and “definitely not trying to make an excuse for this.”
During the discussion, Kelly said she had believed for years that Epstein sought out girls in their mid-teens.
But her perspective changed when she “heard from Pam Bondi that they had tens of thousands of videos of alleged—forgive me, they used to call it ‘kiddie porn,’ now they call it child sexual abuse material—on his computer that for the first time, I thought, ‘Oh, no, he was an actual pedophile,’” Kelly recalled.
But she soon questioned Bondi’s credibility on the matter, saying, “I mean, only a pedophile gets off on young children abuse videos. She’s never clarified it, 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.”
Bondi said in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
However, she walked back her previous statement, saying there was no such list, but only documents related to the case.
Kelly then went on to argue a case for Epstein that earned her the most criticism. She stated her belief that there is “a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old” victim.
Kelly then went on to argue a case for Epstein that earned her the most criticism. She stated her belief that there is “a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old” victim.
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She said we don’t “know what’s true about” Epstein, but that “we have yet to see anybody come forward and say, ‘I was under 10. I was under 14 when I first came within his purview.’”
The internet did not take these comments lightly.
“The left is having conversations about expanding food and healthcare coverage amid a recession, and the right is talking about how low they can draw the line for pedophilia,” said a user on X.
Another said, “So they’ve given up on the whole ‘it’s a hoax’ and have moved on to ‘ok, he did it, but it’s actually not a big deal.’”
Kelly said that Epstein was not a pedophile because he was involved with barely legal girls and not 8-year-olds
Image credits: X/@CubbiesFan82
A third shared a meme of a yard sign that said, “At least she wasn’t 8,” followed by a “Make America Great Again” signature. “Found her yard sign for 2026,” the user captioned the image.
One person reminded Kelly that “Adult sex with a 15-year-old is a criminal sex offense (ie, rape) in every place in the United States.”
Image credits: X/@jeffgoldesq
Some people pointed out the hypocrisy in Kelly’s statement by sharing a 2018 interview where she said, “There's no consenting for a 14 or even a 17-year-old.”
The House Oversight Committee has released thousands of pages of documents and emails. The messages included references to Epstein’s interactions with U.S. President Donald Trump, though Kelly insisted during the episode that the information did not show wrongdoing by Trump.
“That is a true fact about Jeffrey Epstein. But that is not a true fact about Donald Trump,” she said.
Image credits: US District Court for the Southern District of New York
In one 2011 email, Epstein wrote to Maxwell, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. virginia [sic] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. I'm 75% there.”
In 2019, he wrote to Wolff, “Trump said he asked me to resign [as a member of Mar-a-Lago], never a member ever. [O]f course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”
The White House responded to the latest email release by saying Democrats were attempting to create ‘a fake narrative’
Image credits: Adam Gray/Getty Images
The White House responded to the document release by accusing Democrats of attempting to create “a fake narrative.”
Officials said Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year, had previously stated that Trump was not involved in abuse and “couldn’t have been friendlier” with her.