New York Attorney General Plans Outside Counsel for Cornell Case

New York Attorney General Letitia James plans to hire outside counsel to investigate seven Cornell University fraternity brothers accused of raping a female classmate, the New York Post reported on October 24. The move comes after James faced criticism and calls to recuse herself for making comments about the incident that were accused of being prejudicial. According to the New York Post, her office has interviewed multiple former federal prosecutors to handle the probe into the group known as the Cornell 7. [1]

The reported plan follows legal attempts to block James from leading the case. NBC News, NewsOne, the Times Union, and TMZ all reported that James filed court papers opposing efforts to bar her office from the investigation. In additional developments, The Daily Wire reported on October 24 that a judge ruled the accuser in the Cornell 7 case can keep her identity secret. [2][3][4][5][6]

As FTMQ News reported earlier, a defense lawyer requested that James step down from the investigation due to public comments she made. The demand for recusal stemmed from a September 28 social media post in which James expressed support for the alleged victim. The civil lawsuit was filed on September 16, 2026, alleging that a former student was drugged and gang-raped at a fraternity, naming Cornell University, the Chi Phi fraternity, and seven students as defendants. [9][10]

James has served as the attorney general of New York since 2019 after being elected in 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first Black person and the first Black woman to hold statewide office in New York. [7]