An attorney representing a former Cornell University Chi Phi fraternity member named in a sexual abuse lawsuit is calling on New York Attorney General Letitia James to step aside as special prosecutor in the case, arguing she showed bias before she was even assigned to it.
Attorney Andrew Miltenberg told Fox News his objection is not political. “My issue is not political, and it is not personal,” he said. “Several days before her appointment, Letitia James made some comments on X, and those comments are such that I think it’s fair to look at them and say it appears that the person making those comments [is] biased.”
Miltenberg pointed to a Sept. 28 post from James’s official X account addressed to the woman identified as Jane Doe, which read in part: “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers. To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.” The post linked to a news article about the case.
Three days later, on Oct. 1, Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed James’s office as special prosecutor to conduct a new investigation. James later posted that her office would investigate “fully and fairly.”
Miltenberg said sympathy for alleged victims is understandable, but not from someone now assigned to lead an independent inquiry. “It’s OK to offer compassion and be empathetic to survivors of sexual assault, or any violent crime or any crime whatsoever, for that matter,” he said. “But when that compassion is from a person who is now tasked with an independent investigation, her words, I think, are reasonably read as she’s accepted a central factual premise of the allegations, and that person should not be tasked with an independent investigation.”
He said James “has to answer” for the post and could resolve the matter by stepping back from the case.
Legal analyst Mehek Cooke, speaking on Fox & Friends, called the appointment “unprofessional” and “a violation of professional responsibility,” saying, “Imagine being on the other side. Imagine having to defend yourself when you have the lead prosecutor who is saying she ‘stands with’ Jane Doe.” Cooke said James should recuse herself and let federal prosecutors take over.
Miltenberg said he represents a former Chi Phi member who remains a Cornell student after serving a one-year suspension. He described the encounter at the center of the case as mutual, saying Doe kissed his client first and that he did not see her drinking alcohol or using drugs. “He was 50% of that consent, and she was 50% of that consent,” Miltenberg said. “They had a mutual sexual interaction, mutually consented to.”
Even so, Miltenberg said he supports a thorough investigation and noted that the public has seen only a fraction of the evidence gathered so far, which includes a six-month university investigation, dozens of witnesses, nearly two weeks of hearings, a 100-page decision and subsequent appeals. “These are terrible allegations, and clearly something happened,” he said. “Jane Doe deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. And the allegations need to and must be treated with respect and dignity.”
The lawsuit names seven former Chi Phi members along with the fraternity and affiliated entities, Cornell University, Doe’s sorority, and a local bar where she alleges she was served alcohol while underage.
The alleged gang rape occurred overnight from Oct. 19 to 20, 2024, in Ithaca. Doe reported the incident to university police on Nov. 8, 2024. Cornell suspended the fraternity and opened its own investigation, but Tompkins County prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges, citing a six-page sworn statement signed by Doe that did not include the most serious allegations described in a reported transcript of her police interview.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matt Van Houten wrote in a statement posted to his office’s website last month that the sworn statement “especially as it relates to the legal definition of ‘lack of consent’ — provides a different narrative and set of facts of the events of October 19, 2024 than those alleged in the lawsuit.” Van Houten said Doe herself made more than 20 handwritten notations on the document, and that learning of the more explicit allegations she had given police changed his view of the case.
