New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) has shifted a politically charged Cornell University rape case to state Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY), ordering a fresh criminal review after the handling of a former student’s allegations drew scrutiny from Albany to Washington.
The former student, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, says in a lawsuit filed last month that seven men drugged and raped her for hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house near Cornell’s campus in October 2024.
Hochul’s Thursday evening executive order gives James special prosecutor authority over the case, including the power to investigate, bring any warranted charges and put evidence before a grand jury.
“For this reason, I have issued an executive order appointing Attorney General James as special prosecutor in this case,” Hochul said. “As special prosecutor, the Attorney General will investigate this incident and, if warranted, prosecute any offenses arising from that investigation and present evidence to a grand jury.”
The governor pointed to “newly released information” that she said raised “serious questions” about the earlier work of Cornell University Police and the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office.
James answered the appointment by pledging that her office would treat the case as a serious law enforcement responsibility.
“As our state’s Chief Law Enforcement Officer, I stand ready to lead a process guided by the facts and the law,” James noted, adding that the assignment would not be taken “lightly.”
Jane Doe reported the alleged assault to Cornell police several weeks after the October 2024 incident, but prosecutors did not bring criminal charges.
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Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has said his office was working from a six-page campus police report that did not tell prosecutors Jane Doe alleged she had been drugged against her will or gang raped.
Her attorneys have challenged that explanation and argued the original review failed to properly account for what she reported.
Hochul framed James’ new role as a way to remove doubts about the process and revisit the case outside the offices that handled it first.
“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,” Hochul commented. “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.”
The order followed growing Democratic pressure on Cornell, including a canceled appearance by House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), public criticism from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and a fiery denunciation from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
Pelosi dropped out of an Oct. 15 New York City event with Cornell’s Institute of Politics and Global Affairs after concerns over the rape allegations and the university’s response, a source told The Hill.
The Cornell Sun, the university’s independent student newspaper, was first to report that Pelosi would no longer attend.
Slotkin, a Cornell graduate, told TMZ DC at the Capitol on Wednesday that the school’s handling of the matter showed accountability had been delayed.
“Whether it’s my university or anyone’s university, clearly there’s been some sort of delay in accountability, and that needs to end,” Slotkin remarked.
The Michigan senator cast the allegations as part of a wider institutional problem when young men with promising futures are accused of violence against women.
“When we make the decision, that because young men have a promising career ahead of them, that they shouldn’t face accountability for violently assaulting a woman … then we’ve lost our way,” Slotkin said.
The Michigan Democrat also connected the case to her work in a state with several major universities.
“We know what it’s like when institutions fail women,” she added.
The Democratic Women’s Caucus issued its own statement Wednesday backing Jane Doe, with Chair Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM) and Vice Chairs Emilia Sykes (D-OH) and Hillary Scholten (D-MI) calling the alleged incident “disgusting and vile” while criticizing the Trump administration over Title IX protections.
Ocasio-Cortez delivered the most forceful public remarks during a Sunday town hall in Ithaca hosted by More Perfect University, where she accused Cornell of protecting a “culture of rape.”
Drawing from the civil complaint, Ocasio-Cortez described the alleged attack in graphic detail.
“Seven men drugged and gang raped a 20-year-old woman,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“They lured her in to a fraternity house,” she continued. “They drugged her with ketamine. They then posted to a group chat that she was incapacitated, and seven men took turns gang raping her for seven hours.”
Ocasio-Cortez also attacked what she said happened after the university reviewed the matter.
“Their fraternity knew. This was reported to Cornell University. And after looking into this matter, they expelled two of them and made the rest write essays as their form of punishment,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “I want to be clear that the culture of rape, sexual assault, and pedophilia is protected in elite institutions across the United States and including Cornell University in this instance. It has got to stop.”
Cornell rejected Ocasio-Cortez’s description of the discipline, saying the consequences included expulsions and suspensions and that no respondent received an essay as the sole punishment.
The civil complaint says several students who received temporary suspensions were allowed to submit essays in an effort to mitigate their conduct.
Cornell has said it welcomes the reopened probe while defending the results of its own months-long process, which the university says produced multiple sanctions. The Chi Phi chapter was also closed and barred from campus.
“Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false,” Cornell said. “A continuation of the false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible, will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault.”
The unreleased six-page report now sits at the center of the dispute between Cornell police and the Tompkins County prosecutor, with Cornell declining to make it public.
“Cornell University Police shared a lengthy police investigation report with the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office. Any questions about the report should be addressed to the DA,” a Cornell spokesperson told NewsNation.
