List of Celebrities, Public Figures Reacting to ‘Cornell 7’ Allegations - Newsweek

An alleged instance of sexual violence at a Cornell University fraternity house has made national headlines, sparking a conversation about violence against women on college campuses and eliciting responses from key public figures and celebrities.

Florence Pugh, Mariska Hargitay and New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are among those who have spoken out about the allegations.

On September 16, a woman, known as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit which alleged that she had been raped by multiple individuals, in an incident that involved alcohol and the drug ketamine.

Prosecutors confirmed on Monday that a criminal probe has been reopened.

Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County District Attorney, has said that he intends to “seek justice.”

In a statement obtained by Newsweek, Van Houten said, "I have been asked by the community to revisit the decision whether to pursue criminal charges against the seven fraternity members.”

Cornell has backed the decision to reopen the criminal probe.

The school said in a statement: "Cornell University supports the decision of the Tompkins County District Attorney (DA) to provide an opportunity for the victim’s story in the 2024 Chi Phi fraternity sexual assault case to be heard by a criminal grand jury.”

Criminal charges had previously not been filed in late 2024 because the woman did not allege that she had been gang raped or drugged against her will, Van Houten said.

“Jane Doe's statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual,” he said.

The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell closed in 2024 following the allegations and remains barred from campus.

Trey Robb, Interim Executive Director of Chi Phi Fraternity, responded to news reports concerning the Cornell University case, told Newsweek that the fraternity “condemns sexual assault and drug and alcohol abuse in the strongest possible terms. Neither has any place in our fraternity or on college campuses.”

Robb said that Chi Phi’s records stated that three days after the police report was filed, “the Xi chapter voted unanimously to remove the accused members from its rolls.”

“The chapter also recommended that our national fraternity permanently expel them, and our Grand Council did so at a subsequent meeting,” he said. "These actions went beyond anything the law or Cornell University required of us. As a private membership fraternity, Chi Phi acted within its own authority at both the chapter and national levels to remove men suspected of betraying the values of our brotherhood. They failed to meet the standards we set for every brother, and accountability is how we will always respond to behavior that falls short of those standards.”

Several of the men named deny wrongdoing. A lawyer for one of the seven men named in the civil lawsuit said on behalf of his client in a statement to Newsweek on Monday that the claims are “intentionally dishonest” and “morally repugnant.”

“We are confident an honest examination will exonerate him once again,” the attorney said of his client.

An attorney for another of the accused men said in a statement to Newsweek, "What is being said publicly now does not remotely tell the whole story. There are earlier statements, contemporaneous communications, witness testimony, and other evidence that matter. And in important respects, what is being alleged now is difficult to reconcile with what was said much closer in time to the events."

The attorney added "A civil complaint is a set of allegations prepared by advocates. It is not proof, and it is not a finding of fact."

Meanwhile, an attorney for Jane Doe said in a statement to Newsweek, “The desperate protestations of innocence are expected. What else could he say?”

Florence Pugh, the actress and star of East of Eden, was one of the first figures to speak publicly about the case.

She said that she was feeling “uneasy and sick and anxious,” after reading about the case.

“This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and sickened as us. You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are,” she wrote in a post on Instagram on Monday.

“How can you expect us to trust that it’s ‘not all men’ when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet?” she wrote.

Mariska Hargitay, the actress and star of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, shared a statement on Instagram in collaboration with her non-profit, the Joyful Heart Foundation: “A Cornell student says she was never told the outcome of her own Title IX case, and the men she accused are back on campus. The Cornell Daily Sun is demanding answers and accountability, and so are we.”

“Survivors deserve to be believed and kept informed. Silence protects no one. To her: we support you,” the statement continued.

The Joyful Heart Foundation, founded in 2004 by Hargitay, is dedicated to transforming the societal response to sexual violence and providing survivors with resources.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke about the allegations at a town hall titled “Students vs. Billionaires,” at the Ithaca Downtown Conference Center on Sunday.

“When I read about what happened at Cornell, those men posted in a group chat. That means it was normal to them,” she said.

“We cannot protect those spaces anymore,” she said. “Never again.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the allegations "nothing short of horrifying."

"I support the district attorney's decision to reopen the criminal investigation," Hochul said. "But there are also serious questions about Cornell's campus culture and its systems for prevention, reporting and response."

"I am calling for outside counsel to conduct a transparent, independent review of the university's response," Hochul added.

Hudson, the star of Heated Rivalry, wrote in a response shared to his Instagram story, “Arrest them. F*** them and f*** Cornell too!”

The Good Place actress and women’s rights activist wrote in a post on Instagram, “I think the likes of the Cornell 7 shouldn’t be allowed penises anymore. They used them as weapons, so now they have to be confiscated. I think jail time, legal castration and a removal of the shaft seems like the bare minimum.”

The actor Josh Gad, who is known for voicing Olaf in the Disney film Frozen, shared a lengthy statement to Instagram which has been liked one million times as of reporting.

“The “promising” young and “bright” Cornell boys lost the right to a future when they stole a future from a helpless young woman,” the statement read in part.

Morton, the former South Park writer, has launched a website documenting the case, and has made multiple statements, including one where he wrote: “Dear men, how about joining me in the apparently radical act of condemning men who sexually assault women? The bar is on the floor. Step over it.”

The musician Paris Paloma, known for the feminist song Labour, wrote in a post on Instagram, “MEN AND BOYS ARE 230x TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE RAPED THAN FALSELY ACCUSED OF RAPE.”

“So why do men consistently fail to hold rapists accountable?”

Sunny Hostin, one of the hosts of The View, discussed the allegations during the show earlier this week, along with her colleagues.

Hostin, the lawyer and author, specifically spoke about the response online and said, “The pictures of these young men who have not been charged, not been adjudicated have been plastered all over the Internet. I think people are reporting this story inaccurately; I think they’re reporting it unfairly.”

Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.