By Robert Simels
Originally published in amNewYork on
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Robert Simels responds to comments Megyn Kelly made on her SiriusXM show about "Jane Doe," the student who has accused seven Cornell students of sexually assaulting her in October 2024. Kelly questioned the student's account because she waited almost three weeks to report to campus police, and she made remarks about the student's appearance.
Simels argues that Kelly holds the student to a standard she did not apply to herself. He points to Kelly's own account of harassment by Roger Ailes, which she dates to 2006 and made public about a decade later in her 2016 memoir, Settle for More. He also writes that Kelly's remarks about appearance appear to describe the wrong person: court papers filed by the student's lawyers describe her as an 18 year old Cornell freshman in the fall of 2022, while the woman Kelly described did not finish high school until spring 2023.
The commentary lists evidence Simels says supports the student's account, including that she told her roommate within days, text messages from some of the accused, and a Title IX investigation by Cornell. He compares the criticism of her delay to arguments made against the women who accused Harvey Weinstein, many of whom waited years before coming forward.
Simels closes by urging patience. The criminal matter is in the hands of a special prosecutor from the New York State Attorney General's office, designated by Governor Hochul, and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is investigating for Cornell. In his view, commentators should let those investigations develop the facts before drawing conclusions.
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This page is a summary prepared for robertsimels.com. The full commentary was published by amNewYork and remains on amNewYork's site.
Robert Simels. Robert Simels hosts the podcast Injustice for All and serves as a consultant on criminal justice matters. He is no longer practicing law.
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