New York Attorney General Letitia James is facing sharp criticism from politicians and other detractors who question whether she can impartially investigate seven Cornell University fraternity members accused of raping a female student.
Critics point to social media posts in which James expressed support for the alleged victim days before Gov. Kathy Hochul named her special prosecutor on Friday. James has declined to comment on accusations that her prior remarks could compromise the investigation.
Rensselaer County Executive Steven McLaughlin, whom James indicted in 2021 on grand larceny and election fraud charges before a jury acquitted him, said the men involved in the case should “expect the worst.” He described his own experience as evidence that the Democratic attorney general is not impartial.
“She’s clearly engaged in targeted persecutions and prosecutions,” the Republican official said. “She targeted me. She targeted the president.
“In my case, she spent over $1 million trying to nail me over absolutely nothing. She is clearly engaged in targeted political hits. I don’t know all the facts of the case, but I am sure she is going to try and nail these guys rather than let justice prevail.”
McLaughlin was among several critics echoing former President Trump, who said Friday that the Cornell students were unlikely to receive a “fair shake” with James leading the investigation. Trump called the attorney general a “corrupt person.”
James previously secured a $454 million civil judgment against Trump’s business over allegations that it improperly inflated property values. A state appeals court overturned that ruling 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 Councilman Frank Morano (R-Staten Island).
“I don’t know how anyone could expect her to be fair and objective.”
Council Minority Leader David Carr accused James of having “a well-documented history of making highly charged public statements about people she is investigating and prosecuting.
“That is exactly the wrong background for a special prosecutor in a case where impartiality is everything,” said the Staten Island Republican.
“She was publicly characterizing this case before she was even appointed. The allegations deserve to be investigated aggressively, but the accused also deserve due process.”
Melissa DeRosa, a former senior aide to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also challenged Hochul’s decision. DeRosa has previously accused James of conducting an unfair sexual harassment investigation that contributed to Cuomo’s resignation in 2021.
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“I think Kathy Hochul was trying to come up with a political solution to a media storm,” DeRosa said Friday on Fox and Friends.
“Tish James is known to be highly political. Her track record in general is highly political, and I would argue in this instance in particular you need to go the other way and make sure what is being done is not about headline grabbing and not about politics but true to the law.”
Joe Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he has “zero faith” that James will exercise discretion and rely solely on the law during the investigation.
“I think an independent outsider should have been appointed to do this,” he said. “That Facebook post was ridiculous.”
Hochul’s office did not respond to messages Saturday. James, meanwhile, avoided questions about the Cornell case while attending an unrelated event in the Bronx.
Hochul defended the appointment Friday, telling reporters that she has “every confidence” James will do what she has consistently done: review the facts, examine the record and reach the appropriate conclusions.
“That’s exactly what’s going to happen in this case,” she said.
The case became national news when a “Jane Doe” defendant filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court last month accusing seven fraternity brothers of raping her at the Cornell’s Phi Chi fraternity house in October 2024.
The 101-page lawsuit alleges the men plied her with alcohol and ketamine and subjected her to an hours-long sexual assault.
While she was being assaulted, one of the men allegedly sent a message to a 50-person fraternity Snapchat group called “Chi Phi Actives,” declaring there was “free p–sy” in the house.
All of the Cornell Seven have denied wrongdoing.
Cornell conducted an internal probe at the time via the Title IX investigative process, which involved 12 hearings. Doe’s lawsuit claims her alleged attackers only got a slap on the wrist — with just two of the seven expelled from the university.
The case was never prosecuted further, and it was revealed that not all of Doe’s statements and evidence in the case were sent to the local prosecutor.
— Additional reporting by Tina Moore
