Four Cornell defendants join effort to remove Letitia James from probe

Four men accused of involvement in an alleged gang rape at Cornell University have joined a legal effort to remove New York Attorney General Letitia James from the criminal investigation into the incident, the Washington Examiner and ABC News reported. The movement follows allegations by defendants that James lacks objectivity in overseeing the matter. [1][2][3][4][5][6]

Governor Kathy Hochul appointed James in early October to serve as special prosecutor to investigate the incident and present evidence to a grand jury if warranted, according to the Washington Examiner. However, the appointment faced criticism after defendant Gillio Lopes, one of the fraternity brothers accused in the case, alleged that James had shown she was not objective, the Daily Mail reported. [1][2]

The Daily Mail reported that James stepped back from the investigation and appointed former federal prosecutor Jacqueline Kelly to lead the probe into the October 2024 fraternity party allegations. As FTMQ News reported earlier, Kelly previously served as a federal prosecutor who oversaw the criminal case against Sean Diddy Combs. [2][10]

James has served as the 67th attorney general of New York since 2019. She is the first Black person and the first Black woman to hold statewide office in New York. None of the men accused in the Cornell investigation have been criminally charged. [8][11]