President Trump said the Cornell 7 won’t get a fair shake under Letitia James, calling the New York attorney general corrupt after Gov. Kathy Hochul put her on the rape probe.
President Trump told reporters at the White House that seven Cornell University fraternity brothers accused of raping a female classmate will not receive a “fair shake” with New York Attorney General Letitia James running the case. He labeled James a “corrupt person” after Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul directed her to take over the criminal investigation.
Trump told reporters he feels badly for anyone James is examining. The comments came after Hochul sidelined the local prosecutor and handed the matter to an attorney general who previously pursued Trump and his business in civil court.
The dispute sits at the center of a high-profile reopening of an alleged October 2024 assault at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity house. A woman identified as Jane Doe filed a 101-page lawsuit last month in Manhattan Supreme Court. She accused seven fraternity brothers of pllying her with alcohol and ketamine and subjecting her to an hours-long sexual assault. All seven have denied wrongdoing.
On Friday, Hochul directed James to take over the criminal probe as special prosecutor. The governor said she had lost confidence in Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten after new reporting on how the case was handled.
Just the News reported that Hochul cited new information that “raised serious questions about how this case was handled.” Van Houten had not brought charges. His office previously pointed to the woman’s initial statement, which did not allege drugging, lack of consent, or incapacitation.
Hochul framed the switch as protection for the accuser. She said the young woman “had already endured something that is utterly unspeakable” and was then “failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her.” She also said she had “every confidence” James would look at the facts, examine the record, and draw proper conclusions.
Van Houten later said he was opening an investigation and that his office would cooperate with James. Cornell representatives said the university acted in line with police and banned the Chi Phi chapter from campus. The university ran an internal Title IX process, its formal system for handling sexual misconduct complaints, that included 12 hearings. Jane Doe’s lawsuit claims only two of the seven men were expelled and calls that a slap on the wrist.
The appointment fits a pattern of Hochul elevating James on politically charged matters, including when Hochul sidelines upstate prosecutors and hands sensitive probes to the attorney general.
James described the matter as an “active criminal investigation.” She said her office will review the facts, gather evidence, interview witnesses, and pursue prosecutions if warranted.
Fox News reported that Hochul appointed James by executive order after questions about an incomplete initial police statement and the local DA’s earlier decision not to charge. James also said every New Yorker deserves a full and fair investigation when they report a crime.
Days earlier, James had affirmed the young woman’s allegations in a Facebook post. When pressed about that post, she replied, “I will not comment on a Facebook post.” She added, “I know that you want answers. I do, too.”
The lawsuit alleges that while the assault was underway, one of the men sent a message to a 50-person fraternity Snapchat group called “Chi Phi Actives,” declaring there was “free p, y” in the house. Reporting has also raised questions about whether Cornell forwarded all statements and evidence to the local prosecutor.
Critics of James point to long-running accusations that her office has mixed law enforcement with politics, including claims detailed when an internal prosecutor accused the office of political targeting.
Trump’s criticism tracked his own history with James. After he left the White House in his first term, James won a $454 million civil judgment against Trump, his eldest sons, and the Trump Organization. A state appeals court overturned that judgment last year.
In 2025, Trump’s Justice Department charged James with one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution. Prosecutors said she listed a Virginia second home as a primary residence on loan documents. A federal judge later dismissed the indictment because then-acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan had served beyond the 120-day limit without Senate confirmation.
Trump made his latest remarks after first saying on Wednesday that he did not know much about the Cornell case but that Cornell is a fine school and he was sure it would do what is right. Once James was installed, his tone hardened.
He said of James: “She’s totally corrupt, and I can’t imagine it.” He continued, “And I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake. Letitia James is a corrupt person.”
The Washington Examiner noted that none of the seven men had been arrested before the reopening, that university discipline was limited, and that the accuser sued the members, Cornell, fraternities, a sorority, and a bar. Hochul’s order gave James power to investigate and, if warranted, present evidence to a grand jury.
Trump’s legal team has long argued that James’s civil fraud case was unprecedented and politically driven, a fight that reached New York’s highest court over the scope of her authority.
Serious sexual assault allegations demand a complete investigation. Victims deserve to be heard. The accused deserve due process, not a prosecutor with an open political score to settle.
Hochul’s move followed public pressure and media reports about gaps in the first pass at the case. Yet the choice of James puts a prosecutor who campaigned against Trump and extracted a nine-figure civil penalty later tossed on appeal in charge of seven college men whose names have already been dragged through a civil filing and campus process.
Separate reporting has also examined whether James’s office treated Trump as a target, including a deleted email that allegedly ordered staff to target him. That history is why Trump’s warning landed with force among conservatives who watch New York law enforcement for selective zeal.
James now holds the file. Van Houten has pledged cooperation. Cornell has banned the chapter. The civil suit is pending. Criminal charges, if any, remain unfiled. The seven defendants deny the claims. The accuser seeks accountability the first round of campus and local handling did not deliver.
When the same attorney general who chased a former president now runs a campus rape probe handed over by a Democratic governor, the public is right to demand proof that evidence, not politics, will decide the outcome.
