Popular US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has vehemently rejected speculations linking him to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. This comes as dozens of previously sealed US court documents related to the late sexual offender were made public late Wednesday after a court released more records from a years-old lawsuit.
Even before the release of the documents, misinformation about their contents ran rampant on social media. Users claimed that late-night host Kimmel’s name might appear, spurred by a joke New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.” In a response on X, Kimmel said that he had never met Epstein and that Rodgers’ “reckless words put my family in danger.”
“Dear Aasshole: for the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any “list” other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality. Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court,” Kimmel wrote on X.
Dear Aasshole: for the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any “list” other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality. Your reckless… https://t.co/p8eug12uiS— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) January 2, 2024
Epstein socialized with Wall Street titans, royalty and celebrities before pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008. He took his own life in 2019 at age 66 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He was initially arrested in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex.
Dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse, but prosecutors ultimately allowed the financier to plead guilty in 2008 to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program. Some famous acquaintances abandoned Epstein after his conviction, including former President Bill Clinton. However, Epstein continued to mingle with the rich and famous for another decade.
The US attorney in Manhattan then prosecuted Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, for helping recruit his underage victims. She was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison term. The documents being unsealed are part of a 2015 lawsuit filed against Maxwell by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre. She is one of the dozens of women who sued Epstein saying he had abused them at his homes in Florida, New York, the US Virgin Islands and New Mexico.
(With agency inputs)
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