Jane Doe’s Lawyer Did an Uno Reverse on Megyn Kelly

08 Oct 2026, 16:33 · Thought Catalog

Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images

Updated 22 seconds ago, October 8, 2026

Megyn Kelly has spent hours on The Megyn Kelly Show questioning why Cornell’s Jane Doe waited weeks to report an alleged gang rape. The lawyer for the student turned the question on Kelly herself.

Megyn Kelly speaks onstage during Semafor’s Innovating to Restore Trust in News summit at Gallup Great Hall in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 27, 2025. Photo by Shannon Finney / Getty Images.

Thomas P. Giuffra, who represents Doe, told the Daily Beast on Oct. 7 that Kelly waited far longer to speak about her own experience. “Ms. Kelly has publicly condemned Ms. Doe for taking two weeks to go to the police. I would ask Ms. Kelly why it took her over a decade to report unwanted sexual advances from her boss?” he said. “Perhaps she should reflect why it is difficult for women to come forward under these circumstances and honor the courage that it takes.”

He called Kelly’s remarks “mean-spirited,” adding, “When people with a following attack, it gives others permission to attack.”

Outside a building near Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, a banner reading ‘Protect Students Not Rapists’ drew a passing jogger on Oct. 8, 2026, as protests over the school’s handling of a sexual assault case intensified. Photo by Ryan Murphy / Getty Images.

Doe is suing under a pseudonym, alleging 7 Chi Phi members drugged and sexually assaulted her at the Cornell fraternity house on Oct. 19-20, 2024. She reported it to Cornell police on Nov. 8, 2024, about 3 weeks later. Giuffra told CNN that Doe’s “internal processing went from denial, to shame and ultimately acceptance.”

In a clip posted Oct. 1, Kelly had asked, “If you were violently gang raped repeatedly over the course of an evening, do you think it would take you three weeks to call campus police?” She returned to it on Oct. 5: “Why do we have to go right to she’s a victim? Even she took weeks to get there.”

At Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, Megyn Kelly appears at the 2025 TIME100 Gala on April 24, 2025. Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for TIME.

Kelly went public in 2016 about advances from former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes that began in 2006. She said at the time that coming forward earlier “would have been a suicide mission for me and my career,” adding, “I had no power. There was no one to go to.”

Thanks for spending time with Thought Catalog. Connect with us on Facebook and browse the rest of our website.