The Cornell seven has once again sparked a national conversation about rape and college campuses. And it’s the same old problems: everyone rushing to judgment before all the details are hashed out. The seven named in the civil suit are accused, not guilty. This story isn’t the first time the national media and the public writ large thought they knew the story, only to have it blow up in their faces. And every major story of this nature turned out to be a hoax. The Duke lacrosse team was a hoax, with the accuser eventually admitting in 2024 that she fabricated the rape allegations. The University of Virginia saw Rolling Stone get wrecked by a libel suit over a gang rape that never happened. And it seems this one is heading for similar waters. The rule is simple: let’s wait and see.
The case isn’t clear-cut; it's fraught with nuance and has many layers, each requiring in-depth analysis. It’s not like she was drugged and these guys took turns. We had a fraternity party, some apparent group sex, drug use, and Jane Doe consenting to some activities. Yet it could also be a case where she did not consent to some activities, though where that began and when remain a mystery. This incident occurred in 2024. Doe is now a former student and filed the civil suit on September 16.
The text message showed that she did not consider herself a rape victim, even texting with the men who allegedly assaulted her. What was surprising about the lengthy Times piece on this story was that it was right down the line. It details the party, Jane Doe’s processing of what happened, and the conclusion that she feels she was a victim of rape. The problem is that everyone is off to the races condemning these guys. Let the slow process play out. As with anything, this is a grey-area case, but everyone seems to know the verdict, whereas the mountain of evidence quite directly points to Lindsay Clancy murdering her children, and the mental illness defense is absolved, and the patience factor is honored. That’s not the case with rape — once the allegation, true or not, is dropped, the accuser is guilty. I’m waiting for a trainwreck to happen again (via NYT):
On Sept. 16, Jane Doe also filed a lawsuit against seven men, accusing them of sexual assault. Lawyers for at least three of the accused men have broadly denied criminal wrongdoing; others have not yet made public statements.
What had not been known publicly, until now, were the detailed filings collected during the private Title IX proceedings — hundreds of pages of emails, text messages, photographs and interviews with Jane Doe, her friends and those she accused.
[…]
At 3:05 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2024, one of Jane Doe’s roommates sent her a text.
“Are you coming home tonight?” she asked.
Four minutes later, Jane Doe texted back that she didn’t know.
The roommate went to sleep, she would tell investigators. When she woke up at 11 a.m., she uploaded a photo of her empty room to Snapchat. “Only I made it back home,” she wrote on the post.
Around 11:15 a.m., she said, Jane Doe arrived home, still in her “big boots and small dress” from the night before, according to the roommate. She had consumed ketamine and had sex with multiple men, she told her two roommates. One roommate told investigators that Jane Doe did not use the word “rape” or “assault” yet.
[…]
The next day, on Oct. 21, Jane Doe went to her “big sister” — a woman designated as a mentor — at Cornell’s Tri Delta sorority and told her there were rumors circulating that she was a “slut.” The big sister, a junior at Cornell, told investigators that Jane Doe added with a laugh that “unfortunately they are true.”
[…]
That same day, Jane Doe received a text message from Jonathan Newell, one of the men she would go on to accuse of sexual assault.
“I just wanted to apologize for how things went down the other night,” Mr. Newell wrote. He then said that both he and Matthew Ingalls, another of the men she would later accuse of assault, both felt terrible for being too under the influence of drugs and alcohol to “shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand.”
Jane Doe replied and reassured him.
“At the end of the day non of the sexual stuff was illegal and honestly i really liked being w u and matt,” she wrote.
A lawyer for Mr. Newell did not respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Ingalls declined to comment.
[…]
On Oct. 23, Jane Doe texted Mr. Ingalls.
“Bro,” she wrote, “everyone knows.”
She said the episode was “RUINING my life temporarily” and that her reputation had been destroyed. She said all she could do was “sleep and cry all day.”
According to the documents, Mr. Ingalls assured her that it would all blow over soon, noting “how fast nonsense spreads at this school,” and said she did not have “anything to be ashamed of.”
“You’re right,” Jane Doe wrote. “It’ll get better.”
Jane Doe’s sorority big sister received a text that week: “Have you heard the rumor about your little?”
In the meantime, Jane Doe gave one of her roommates strict instructions: “If anyone asks about this,” she said, according to the roommate’s testimony, “say it didn’t happen.”
Doe had seen a post on an online forum about Greek life, specifically about the group sex that occurred at this first party. Meanwhile, when she was disinvited from the fraternity’s Halloween party, despite them saying she was always invited to their house, the mood changed dramatically:
By Nov. 3, Jane Doe appears to have concluded that she was assaulted at the October party. She sent a text to Mr. Newell.
“let’s be clear that 90% of what happened that night was not consensual. i was given more key than i can remember,” she said, using a shorthand for ketamine, “and i know that i told u i felt uncomfortable and i didn’t know anyone in the room.”
She would get a rape kit done four days later.
I have no idea what happened. Neither do you. But there are times when some have mistaken regrettable sex as rape. Aziz Ansari had to head into the bunker for an extended period during the Me Too moment when he was accused of sexual misconduct: it turns out it was just a bad date.
Now, the Snapchats sent during this escapade are not good for the accused, especially the “free pussy upstairs” messages. Let’s wait and see. But there are going to be twists and turns here, and it’s going to take some time. One thing is for sure. The media has often failed miserably in reporting on such complex topics. Be skeptical. Maybe this isn't a hoax, but given the past track record, it wouldn't shock me.
Camille Paglia, essentially, has the last word on the Cornell 7.
— Akhenaten 🇺🇦🏴☠️ (@SplendorEternal) September 30, 2026
Don’t dive into the sea and act surprised when you get wet. pic.twitter.com/Poe3jpxvAZ
The way people talk about the Cornell 7 case, you'd think a girl was passed out on a couch and seven random dudes took turns raping her while she was incapacitated. Then you read what happened, and it was actually a slutty slutastic slut fest with questions about which parts were…
— Julie Borowski (@JulieBorowski) October 1, 2026
Incredible reporting from the NYT.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) October 1, 2026
The woman at Cornell did not consider herself a rape victim until she saw people making fun of her for being a slut.
She went to her "big sister" in her sorority and confessed that she had been a slut. Then while texting one of the men she… pic.twitter.com/ySwXt5ZxP0
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