Sunny Hostin is clarifying where she stands on the explosive Cornell University sexual assault case, saying she finds the allegations “morally repugnant” even as she argues New York law makes prosecution difficult.
The View co-host addressed the case again after Cornell agreed to an outside review of how it handled a former student’s claims.
“This is now an active investigation, and I think we’re all learning more and more about this case,” Hostin said.
"The View" host Sunny Hostin stands up for accused Cornell gang rape defendants.
— TMZ (@TMZ) September 29, 2026
: ABC pic.twitter.com/4wo46PXsQU
Jane Doe has sued Cornell and seven fraternity members, alleging she was drugged and sexually assaulted for hours at the Chi Phi house in October 2024. Hostin, a former sex crimes prosecutor, said she believes the case would have been handled differently in another jurisdiction.
“In D.C., this case would have gone to trial,” she said. “I would have prosecuted this case like I prosecuted a lot of sex crimes.”
Sunny Hostin now walks back her previous defense of the Cornell 7.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 1, 2026
She says that if this was in D.C. when she was still a federal prosecutor she would take the case, and blames New York's intoxication law for it not being tackled sooner:
"I always look at this as a former sex… pic.twitter.com/QesE836JuI
“Why do these kids have ketamine? Why is there no upstander?” Hostin continued.
Hostin previously explained that New York law places strict limits on when intoxication can legally establish an inability to consent.
“You’d have to be unconscious or involuntarily drugged, slipped a drug, in order to charge this case,” she explained, but she faced major backlash online, with social media accusing her of defending the alleged rapists.