President Donald Trump said the seven men accused in a Cornell University fraternity rape case will not get a “fair shake” with New York attorney general Letitia James as special prosecutor. He spoke while leaving the White House for a rally in Alabama, according to People. He said he feels badly for anyone James investigates and called her corrupt.
The Cornell 7 case stems from a civil complaint filed in mid-September. A woman identified as Jane Doe alleges that she was drugged and gang raped by the seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University in October 2024. The lawsuit claims she was raped for hours and pressured into taking drugs that left her incapacitated. Although the incident was reported to Cornell police in 2024, no charges were filed at that time. None of the seven men has been criminally charged, and three of them have denied the allegations.
Local prosecutors reopened the case days before the appointment as the lawsuit drew national attention, and Governor Kathy Hochul then appointed James to take over the investigation. Hochul said new information raised serious questions about how the case was handled. Hochul said she had lost faith in the Tompkins County District Attorney’s ability to oversee the case fairly.
James says the facts and the law will guide her on this one
James responded to her appointment, saying she was prepared to lead a process guided by the facts and the law. Thomas Giuffra, the attorney who represents the plaintiff, said he and his client were pleased with the appointment. The president did not mention Jane Doe in his remarks, as his comments focused on James. “She’s totally corrupt, and I can’t imagine it,” Donald Trump said of the attorney general.
He was answering a reporter’s question about the appointment. James sued the president in 2022, and a judge found him liable in 2024 for inflating his net worth to obtain better loan terms and insurance rates. That ruling ordered him to pay more than $450 million in penalties. However, an appeals court threw out the penalty last year and left the fraud finding in place. Since his return to the White House for a second term, the president has frequently criticized James.
Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, previously sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department alleging that James falsified property records. The Justice Department later indicted her on bank fraud charges tied to a mortgage application. James denied these claims, and a federal judge dismissed the indictment in November 2025 as the prosecutor who secured it had been unlawfully appointed. A grand jury in Virginia then declined to indict her again.
“It is time for this unchecked weaponization of our justice system to stop,” Letitia James said after that decision. The president followed his remarks with a Truth Social post that questioned why Hochul chose James for the Cornell University case.
James said her office will review the evidence and interview witnesses before deciding whether to pursue prosecutions, and she cautioned that the investigation should take time. Cornell has also agreed to an independent review of how it handled the case.
Published: Oct 5, 2026 05:45 pm