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WASHINGTON — President Trump predicted that the seven fraternity brothers accused of raping a female classmate at Cornell University won’t get a “fair shake” with Letitia James on the case — because the New York attorney general is a “corrupt person.”
“She’s totally corrupt, and I can’t imagine it,” the president told reporters at the White House when asked about James’ appointment as special prosecutor to investigate the so-called “Cornell 7.”
“And I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake. Letitia James is a corrupt person.”
Trump has a long history with James, who prosecuted him and his Trump Organization after he left the White House in his first term. She charged Trump and his associations — including his eldest two sons — of inflating the value of their real estate business.
At the time, the New York AG won a massive $454 million civil judgment against Trump’s business, but that was overturned by a state appeals court last year.
Trump’s Justice Department went on to charge James in 2025 with one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution in connection with a second home purchase in Virginia that she listed as a primary residence in loan documents.
A federal judge later dismissed the indictment due to the prosecutor, then-acting US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, being improperly serving beyond her 120-day limit without Senate confirmation.
Here’s the latest on the ‘Cornell 7’ frat probe:
- Outraged Cornell students, parents demand accountability in Jane Doe gang-rape case: ‘Fight like hell’
- ‘Deeply disturbed’ Hochul rages at how ‘brave’ Cornell 7 accuser was ‘failed at every turn’
- The sick, online posts that pushed Cornell 7 rape accuser to go to cops: ‘I was a sex doll’
- Everything we know about explosive ‘Cornell 7’ rape case shocking the nation
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Friday directed James to take over the criminal investigation of the alleged gang rape at the Ivy league university.
James called the Cornell case an “active criminal investigation.”
“We will review the facts, gather evidence, interview witnesses, and if warranted pursue prosecutions,” James said. “I know that you want answers. I do, too.”
Asked by a reporter whether Hochul had confidence in James to probe the matter impartially, even after the New York prosecutor affirmed the allegations from the “young woman” in a post on her Facebook page days ago, the governor said she had “every confidence in our attorney general to do what she has always done: Look at the facts, examine the record and draw the proper conclusions.”
“I will not comment on a Facebook post,” James added.
The case became national news when a “Jane Doe” defendant filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court last month accusing seven fraternity brothers of raping her at the Cornell’s Phi Chi fraternity house in October 2024.
The 101-page lawsuit alleges the men plied her with alcohol and ketamine and subjecting her to an hours-long sexual assault.
While she was being assaulted, one of the men allegedly sent a message to a 50-person fraternity Snapchat group called “Chi Phi Actives,” declaring there was “free p–sy” in the house.
All of the Cornell seven have denied wrongdoing.
Trump has not commented much on the case details. When asked about it on Wednesday, he said: “I don’t know that much about it, but Cornell is a fine school, and I’m sure they’ll do what’s right.”
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Cornell conducted an internal investigation at the time via the Title IX investigative process, which involved 12 hearings. Jane Doe’s lawsuit claims her alleged attackers only got a slap on the wrist — with just two of the seven expelled from the university.
The case was never prosecuted further and it was revealed that not all of Jane Doe’s statements and evidence in the case were sent to the local prosecutor. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he is now opening an investigation.
The governor, however, said she has no confidence in Van Houten’s probe after the new reporting revealed discrepancies in what the DA said the survivor originally reported to campus police.
Van Houten said his office would cooperate with James in her investigation.
Hochul also expressed her sympathy for Jane Doe.
“This young woman had already endured something that is utterly unspeakable. And then at every turn she was failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her.”
Cornell reps have said the university acted in accordance with police and banned the Chi Phi frat chapter from campus.
