A Fox News legal contributor who once defended convicted movie mogul Harvey Weinstein said the woman accusing seven Cornell fraternity members of gang rape must take responsibility for her choices.
Donna Rotunno, who also hosts a Fox News crime podcast, made the remarks Monday on "Fox & Friends" after co-host Lawrence Jones raised the case.
The woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, alleges in a civil lawsuit that seven former Chi Phi fraternity members drugged and sexually assaulted her in October 2024, Fox News reported. No one has been criminally charged.
"You know, I want to be sensitive to Jane Doe, but we know the identities of these males now. At some point, we have to hear from Jane Doe," Jones said. "That's the only way this is fair and proper. Some of these guys have already lost their jobs without due process."
"These are young kids on a college campus making decisions. Decisions to drink, decisions to engage in debaucherous behavior, and there are consequences to that," Rotunno replied. "That does not mean that those consequences are one-sided."
"Do I think it's a good idea to go to a frat house after you've had some alcohol? No, I don't," she continued. "Do I think it's a good idea for young boys to engage in activity with a woman after she's been drinking? No, I don't."
"However, this is what goes on. And if it goes on and you make these choices, you have to take responsibility for those choices."
Rotunno argued that "instead of being a victim, you should look at this and say, 'You know what? I'm going to make better decisions so none of us find ourselves in these positions."
"We don't know her identity," Rotunno pointed out, turning to the accuser's anonymity. "She has not come forth, and you should not be able to hide behind your anonymity when now you've made multiple different statements regarding this."
"When you make statements in 2024 and then you make different statements in a 2026 lawsuit, you have to look at the veracity of those statements and the motivation to maybe make different [statements], especially when money is involved," she argued.
Doe's attorney, Thomas Giuffra, told National Public Radio that she said in a 2024 sworn statement to Cornell police that she was certain she had been raped. However, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who declined to file charges in 2024, claimed his office never received the transcript of her police interview.
Rotunno led Weinstein's defense at his 2020 New York rape trial, where she drew criticism from the #MeToo movement for her comments outside court, the Associated Press reported.
"I have not," Rotunno replied in 2020 when New York Times reporter Megan Twohey asked on "The Daily" podcast whether she had ever been sexually assaulted. "Because I would never put myself in that position."
"No, I've always made choices from college-age on where I never drank too much, I never went home with someone I didn't know, I just never put myself in any vulnerable circumstance. Ever," she continued at the time.
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY) as special prosecutor last week, saying James will oversee the investigation and, if warranted, present evidence to a grand jury, NewsNation reported.
