The attorney for a Cornell University fraternity member named in a civil sexual assault lawsuit has filed a motion asking a judge to void New York Attorney General Letitia James’s appointment as special prosecutor in the case, arguing she already showed her hand before she took the job.
Andrew Miltenberg, who represents Cornell student Gillio Lopes, made the case on “Saturday in America,” telling host Kayleigh McEnany that James’s prior public statements backing the accuser disqualify her from running a neutral investigation.
“I do not believe she can be fair. Had she made a statement that was empathetic or compassionate towards a victim, that’s fine. I don’t think that person can become a neutral investigator or prosecutor,” Miltenberg said.
Before Governor Kathy Hochul appointed her special prosecutor, James posted on X on Sept. 28 in support of the woman identified as Jane Doe.
“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.”
Miltenberg told McEnany his side isn’t fighting the idea of an outside investigation, just James’s role in it. “We welcome an investigation, just not her, and I don’t know how anyone could think at this point that she could be fair,” he said.
How the case started
Jane Doe attended a party at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity house on Oct. 19, 2024. Weeks later she reported the alleged incident to Cornell University Police, who investigated and forwarded a six-page voluntary sworn statement from her to the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors there declined to bring charges, finding the evidence didn’t meet New York’s threshold for criminal charges.
Doe’s civil complaint alleges Lopes and another defendant placed her on a bed before two men had nonconsensual sex with her. Miltenberg flatly rejected that version of events, calling it “not true.”
He pointed instead to text messages he says Doe sent the day after the party, which he argues show the encounters were consensual and conflict with the lawsuit’s claims. “I understand that perceptions shift and memories shift after a period of time, but her initial statements, her initial texts, her initial testimony with respect to the police, all was very clear about how she viewed this situation,” Miltenberg said, while conceding that “post-traumatic stress memory repression is a real thing.”
Why James got the case
Hochul appointed James special prosecutor after concerns from Doe and the public that local authorities in Tompkins County couldn’t investigate “without conflict or bias.” James has pushed back on claims she prejudged the matter, saying during an attorney general campaign debate that her earlier comments were meant to show “empathy” and that “politics stops at the door” of her office.
Miltenberg, along with an attorney for another defendant, has now filed the motion to invalidate James’s appointment. He said he believes it has a “good chance of having her appointment voided.”
“I am hopeful that the judge will see it that way and will void her appointment and appoint or ask the governor to appoint someone equally as experienced, equally as interested in the facts and perhaps less personally invested in the case,” Miltenberg said.
Lopes remains enrolled at Cornell. Miltenberg said his client is “keeping a low profile, and he is looking forward to finishing his degree as a regular college student.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the New York Attorney General’s Office and Doe’s legal team for comment but had not received a response.
