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A developing collection of critics is speaking out against New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) following her recent move to appoint the state’s Attorney General (AG) Letitia James to lead an investigation into the disturbing 2024 case of seven Cornell University fraternity members accused of a drug- and alcohol-powered gang rape of a female classmate.
The governor, who is hoping to defeat Republican Bruce Blakeman next month, announced Thursday that she tapped James as special prosecutor of the case after discrepancies surfaced from what the accuser originally reported.
“Newly released information continues to raise serious questions about the investigation conducted by the Cornell Police Department and the decision by the Tompkins County District Attorney not to prosecute an alleged sexual assault on Cornell University’s campus in October 2024,” Hochul said, according to the New York Post, adding the inconsistencies led her to appoint James to head the investigation.
“According to new reports, she [the female student] could not have been clearer that she was 100% confident that she had been raped,” Hochul said during a press conference on Friday.
“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,” Hochul added, according to the Post’s report. “This action will ensure that the matter is fully and thoroughly investigated without conflict or bias, and handled independently with the rigor that this matter demands.”
Nevertheless, concerns about bias and conflict of interest are exactly what are increasingly becoming the focus for many who have seen how James has operated over the past decade.
In fact, on September 28 – prior to her appointment to the Cornell investigation – James posted to X her perception of the case – a view that appears to be supportive of the accuser.
“What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable,” James wrote. “I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers. To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.”
A statement released September 28 by Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten addresses one of the key troubling discrepancies in the case:
Jane Doe’s sworn statement in November of 2024 did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped. On the contrary, Jane Doe’s statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual. My office obviously did not and could not have based our November 2024 decision on the allegations in a civil lawsuit that would not be filed until nearly two years later. Furthermore, I have never been contacted by Jane Doe’s attorneys. Not to inform me the original statement was inaccurate and not to ask me to reconsider our decision. Rather, I reached out to Jane Doe’s attorneys after the lawsuit was filed to understand the discrepancy between the original statement and the lawsuit’s allegations and the proper path forward in light of the lawsuit’s allegations.
On Wednesday, however, it was reported that the female student told campus police that “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”
Critics of Hochul’s appointment of James include those who say they have been subjected to her focused targeting.
Rensselaer County Executive Steven McLaughlin told the Post James is “clearly engaged in targeted persecutions and prosecutions.”
Having been indicted on grand larceny and election fraud charges in 2021 – but then later acquitted by a jury – McLaughlin predicted the “Cornell Seven” could “expect the worst” because James is “anything but impartial.”
“She targeted me. She targeted the president,” he added.
President Donald Trump also predicted James would not be impartial in the case – given his own experience with the state AG.
“She’s totally corrupt, and I can’t imagine it,” the president said Friday.
James won a $454 million civil judgment against Trump’s business for claims of inflating its value, but a state appeals court overturned that decision last year.
“Much like with the legal action she brought against the president, Attorney General Tish James appears to have already drawn her own conclusions about this incident, without gathering all the facts,” said City Council Minority Leader David Carr (R-Staten Island). “I don’t know how anyone could expect her to be fair and objective.”
Following Hochul’s and James’ appearance during a press conference Friday, Blakeman, Hochul’s opponent, commented to NBC New York on the governor’s role in the case.
“It’s taxpayer money that’s being spent on Cornell University, and if this kind of stuff is going on at Cornell University, it was her responsibility to say something about it sooner and to do a report and investigation,” Blakeman said, weighing in as well on a loophole in New York State rape law.
“If a woman’s had too much to drink, that should be a signal to a man right away that, you know, consent isn’t being able to be given by that individual because they’re intoxicated,” the Republican said. “They can’t make a reasoned decision on whether or not they want to engage in sex.”
Now, Hochul says she wants to close that loophole.
“If someone is too intoxicated to consent, it should not matter whether they chose to use drugs or alcohol,” she said. “Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang rape. Period.”
Law professor and legal analyst Jonathan Turley wrote Monday about Hochul’s appointment of James that the latter “was elected on a pledge to weaponize the legal system against President Donald Trump, promising that she would prosecute Trump without specifying any crime.”
“She is known as one of the most political prosecutors in the country, using her office to pursue groups and individuals on the right,” Turley added, noting that even James’ “former staffers recently condemned her for converting them into ‘Tish’s personal attorneys … targeting her political enemies.’”
“Hochul’s appointment of James maximizes the chances of a criminal charge in the case,” he observed. “James has always followed the policy of the Queen of Hearts in ‘Alice in Wonderland’: ‘Sentence first, verdict afterward.’”
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