On her SiriusXM daily talk show on Wednesday, conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly raised doubts about how old the children were who were abused by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Kelly, a former longtime Fox News host, said that based on information from a source she described as being close to the case, she had long believed the girls Epstein targeted were in their mid-teens — “the barely legal type,” as she put it — rather than children younger than 10. She emphasized that the conduct was “sick” and “disgusting” regardless of age, but argued that there is a “distinction” between victims’ ages.
Why It Matters
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee recently released three emails referencing President Donald Trump and Epstein, renewing scrutiny of Trump’s past relationship with the disgraced financier. Trump has repeatedly denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes and has said he ended their association years before Epstein’s death. Several of the president’s allies have dismissed the Democrats’ actions as a political “smear” campaign.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a person under 18 and served time in jail. He was also required to register as a sex offender.
What To Know
On the episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, Kelly said many of her views about Epstein and his conduct stem from someone she knew “very close to the case,” though she declined to identify the source.
“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 said, adding, “But that he was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15-year-old girls.”
Michael Seto, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa, told Newsweek via email Thursday that the medical community defines pedophilia “as a sexual attraction to prepubescent children, i.e., children who are not yet showing any physical signs of pubertal development.” He noted that “children vary in the age when they start puberty, but this is typically age 13 or younger.”
Seto explained that “hebephilia refers to pubescent-appearing children,” or children who have started going through puberty “but they are still obviously not adults; typically they are young adolescents, ages 13 to 15.”
This terminology matters in clinical settings, Seto said, because “whether someone has pedophilia or hebephilia — or not — is important to distinguish clinically because it is relevant to risk assessment and treatment.” He added, however, that “for many people this distinction is not important because they are understandably outraged that children of any age or stage of physical development are being sexually harmed.”
Kelly went on:
“I realize this is disgusting, I’m definitely not trying to make an excuse for this, I’m just giving you facts. 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. That is what I believed,” she said.
In New York, the legal age of consent is 17. In Florida, it is 18.
Earlier this year, Kelly said, her view of Epstein shifted after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters at the White House that the FBI was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” of Epstein “with children or child porn.” Kelly recalled that it was “the first time I thought he was an actual pedophile; only a pedophile gets off on young child abuse videos.”
But Kelly added that she has since become skeptical of Bondi’s statements: “I have to be honest, I don’t really trust Pam Bondi’s word on the Epstein matters anymore. I don’t know what is true about him, 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.”
Kelly concluded: “There’s a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old. It’s sick, every time we start talking about Epstein, it makes your skin crawl. The whole thing is just disgusting.”
What People Are Saying
Trump, on his Truth Social platform:
“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects. Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap. The Democrats cost our Country $1.5 Trillion Dollars with their recent antics of viciously closing our Country, while at the same time putting many at risk — and they should pay a fair price. There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”
U.S. Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, in an X post Thursday:
“Why would Trump—who allegedly knew of Epstein’s crimes—‘spend hours’ at a pedophile’s house with an underage victim? I think we all know the answer.”
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, on X:
“Oversight Dems have received new emails from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate that raise serious questions about Donald Trump and his knowledge of Epstein’s horrific crimes. Read them for yourself. It’s time to end this cover-up and RELEASE THE FILES.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a Thursday X post:
“If not for the Jeffrey Epstein story, CNN would be forced to talk about how Chuck Schumer and the Democrats got shellacked by President Trump and Republicans in the government shutdown fight. It’s clear this is another Democrat + Mainstream Media hoax, fueled by fake outrage, to distract from the President’s wins. Republicans, don’t be fooled. President Trump will remain focused on Making America Affordable Again.”
U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, in an August X post:
“JD Vance and other pedophile protection party officials are holding an emergency meeting tonight over their strategy on the Epstein files. This cover-up is a disgrace to Epstein’s victims. The American people deserve transparency and accountability. Release the Epstein files.”
What Happens Next
A vote on whether to release the Epstein files is scheduled for next week, earlier than many had anticipated. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the timing on Wednesday, after U.S. Representative Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, was sworn in and added the final 218th required signature to a discharge petition compelling the vote.
