Donald Trump said Friday that he feels badly for the seven Cornell University fraternity members accused of gang raping a classmate, and he attacked New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was just named special prosecutor in the case.
Video:
“Letitia James is a corrupt person. She’s totally corrupt, and I can’t imagine it,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn as he left the White House for Alabama. “And I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake.”
His comments came one day after New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order putting Letitia James in charge of the criminal investigation. Hochul pulled the case from the local district attorney after newly released information raised serious questions about how police and prosecutors handled it.
The case centers on a former Cornell student who filed a civil lawsuit in September under the name Jane Doe. She says she was drugged and sexually assaulted by members of the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024. Cornell suspended the seven students accused and the fraternity chapter, and two of the men were expelled. None of them were criminally charged.
The Tompkins County district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, decided not to prosecute after reviewing a six page summary from campus police. He acknowledged that his office did not independently investigate and never interviewed the woman. At a press conference Friday, Hochul said the district attorney did not do the “bare minimum.”
“I will not allow anyone to sweep this case under the rug,” Hochul said.
At the same press conference, Letitia James announced that the case is now an active criminal investigation. She said her office would lead a process “guided by the facts and the law” and that it does not take the responsibility lightly. None of the seven men has been charged with a crime.
Trump’s attack on James is the latest chapter in a long feud. In 2022, James sued Trump and his company for inflating the value of their assets to get better loans and insurance deals. Trump was found liable, but an appeals court later threw out the penalty of more than $500 million against him and two of his sons.
Trump then pushed the Justice Department to charge James with mortgage fraud over a home she bought in Virginia, claiming she listed it as her primary residence to get a better loan. A federal judge threw out those charges after ruling that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney Trump picked to bring the case, was unlawfully appointed. A grand jury later refused to indict James again.
Trump has repeatedly called James corrupt over the years, including in posts on his Truth Social platform demanding that she resign. James has said she will not be intimidated.
Her office now has the power to present evidence to a grand jury, a panel of citizens that decides whether there is enough evidence to bring criminal charges, and to prosecute the seven men if the facts support it.
