Jimmy Kimmel, Pat McAfee, and Aaron Rodgers (L to R). Jimmy Kimmel, Pat McAfee, and Aaron Rodgers (L to R).
DisneyESPNBy Ben Axelrod and Arthur Weinstein on

After weeks of anticipation, the court records naming the associates of deceased convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were unsealed on Wednesday night. And despite Aaron Rodgers’ suggestion to the contrary, Jimmy Kimmel’s name is not on the list.

You can find the full list of names that do appear on the list here.

During his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, Rodgers insinuated that Kimmel’s name could be on the list.

“A lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, are really hoping that doesn’t come out,” Rodgers said of the list, unprompted.

In spite of Kimmel’s name not being in the documents, an image claiming that he was quickly went viral on X/Twitter late Wednesday, but was almost instantly reported as fraudulent.

The X account akafacehots, which has more than 186,000 followers, posted what appeared to be dialogue from a victim asked if they had ever met the late-night talk show host. They allegedly replied they had met him a couple of times.

But online critics immediately pointed out the dubious source of the alleged transcript, and that it contained several inconsistencies. For example, the page in question is numbered 1375, while there were only 943 pages of documents released.

Reporters who had already searched through the documents confirmed they had seen no mention of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host’s name.

The original tweet received a Community Note, X’s fact-checking function for users to report misinformation.

“A search of the Epstein Documents does not return any references to Jimmy Kimmel,” the Community Note read.

Yet the original tweet had already spread far and wide on X, mostly shared on right wing social media accounts, with many users congratulating Rodgers and praising him for being right, even though he wasn’t. Even the first tweet displayed when searching Kimmel’s name on X calls him a “pedophile” with no note or correction attached.

 

Rodgers’ comment has caused quite the stir, with Kimmel taking to X (formerly Twitter) to threaten legal action against the four-time NFL MVP. While Rodgers’ potentially slanderous comment was noteworthy in and of itself, it drew additional attention as The Pat McAfee Show airs on ESPN and Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs on ABC — both of which are Disney properties.

Further complicating the situation is that Rodgers is paid by The Pat McAfee Show for his weekly appearances. During Wednesday’s episode, McAfee addressed the situation.

“There’s no formal outline of what we’re going to talk about, how we’re going to talk about it,” McAfee said. “There is just an opportunity to talk about damn near everything for three and a half hours. And in doing so, the upside of that is some magic will come that you never knew would come … on the flip side, there can be some things that could be certainly, probably, and we’re going to have to hear from Aaron on that, meant to be s*** talk jokes that then leads to a massive overnight story.

“But I can see exactly why Jimmy Kimmel felt the way he felt, especially with his position. But I think Aaron was just trying to talk s***. Now, did it go too far? Jimmy Kimmel certainly said that was the case. We and I, immediately upon it happening, tried to go, ‘ooh, ooh, ooh, no.’ But that is Aaron and Jimmy.”

In spite of McAfee trying to defuse the situation, it’s already spun out of control thanks to Rodgers’ innuendo. Even though Kimmel isn’t involved in the Epstein list, there’s an entire online universe that now falsely thinks that he is, and it’s largely thanks to Rodgers’ reckless comments.

While some have jumped to Rodgers’ defense by arguing that he didn’t literally connect the dots that Kimmel’s name was on the list, the insinuation was clear and the fallout of countless social media users doing exactly that speaks for itself. And it only makes any future steps that ESPN or Disney may take regarding the controversy that much more significant.