Was comedian and TV host Jimmy Kimmel named as Jeffrey Epstein's client in the most recent batch of court documents released in the first week of 2024? No, that's not true: Lead Stories manually reviewed the files, and none of them discussed or mentioned Kimmel. Kimmel has denied "any contact whatsoever with Epstein" and he has denied that his name was on any Epstein list.
The claim originated in a post (archived here) published on X, previously known as Twitter, on January 4, 2024. The text was:
Jimmy Kimmel is a Pedophile
Pass it on 👉
A shared image that looked like a screenshot of an official document continued:
Page 13751 Did you ever meet Jimmy Kimmel?2 A. Yes, twice.3 Q. Where was this?4 A. At Jeffrey's house in Palm Beach.5 Q. Did you ever give him a massage?6 A. Yes, both times.7. Q. And did you ever engage in sex with him?8 A. I did, the second time I met him.9 Q. Who suggested the two of you have sex?10 A. Jimmy suggested it himself.
This is what it looked like on X at the time of writing:
The post was published after U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York unsealed another portion of the documents (archived here) related to the activities of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. The files that were made public on January 3 and January 4, 2024, came from a civil lawsuit filed by one of the victims, Virginia Giuffre, against Ghislaine Maxwell, a British-born socialite who was convicted in U.S. federal court for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.
Contrary to the claim published on X, none of the freshly released court records contained any references to Kimmel.
Furthermore, the Q&A seen in the post wasn't there, either: It appeared to be entirely made up of different lines found in the batch.
For example, a deposition of Johanna Sjoberg (archived here), which was the closest match to what was described on X, included only some phrases from the dialogue, but not its entirety. We only see the question that begins with "Did you ever meet ..." and the half-sentence "At Jeffrey's house in Palm Beach," but this fragment didn't explicitly accuse anyone of anything:
(Source: Court Listener screenshot taken on Thu Jan 4 20:46:31 2024 UTC)
Unlike many other fragments, the actual transcript describing the exchange above lacks the letter "Q." in front of the first question. That missing "Q" and the numeric references to the lines match the "screenshot" on X although words have been added and moved.
Other phrases in the screenshot are consistent with the overall tone of the disclosed depositions but they do not appear together.
On January 2, 2024, the comedian had already denied (archived here) similar accusations on X:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Jan 4 21:45:23 2023 UTC)
Kimmel's post was a response to Aaron Rodgers, the New York Jets quarterback who implied (archived here) on air that the comedian had some ties to Epstein by saying:
There's a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel are really hoping that doesn't come out. ... I'll tell you what, if that list comes out, I definitely will be popping some sort of bottle.
"That" was a reference to what some on social media described as a "list" allegedly including the names of the people suspected of engagement in illegal sexual activities with underaged girls on Epstein's properties. But as Lead Stories previously wrote, there was no such "list" -- the disclosed documents were only re-released to remove redactions and show the names -- and that included people ranging from victims to Epstein's household employees.
A mention of someone's name in the court materials by itself does not automatically mean that the person was involved in any wrongdoing.
Pat McAfee, a TV host who was on screen as his guest, Rodgers, made comments about Kimmel and Epstein during "The Pat McAfee Show," later apologized (archived here) to Kimmel.
Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Epstein can be found here.
