The Cornell 7 case had already become a circus, and a politicized circus at that. The solution for it would have been independent, low-profile special counsels with established integrity and credibility to take over the case and determine whether a case exists at all for criminal prosecution.
Instead, New York Governor Kathy Hochul made a public spectacle of assigning the most politicized Attorney General east of St. Paul, Minnesota to take over the case and turn a circus into a kangaroo court. John wrote last Thursday about Hochul's appointment of Leticia James to personally run the Cornell 7 case, pointing out that both she and James had already decided that the allegations were true and sided with the accuser in her public comments. A reporter at the presser challenged Hochul and James to explain, and neither did:
Reporter: "Attorney General, on your Facebook page three days ago, you wrote, ‘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.’ Why did you affirm her allegations as fact without doing your own fact-finding investigation? And to the governor, why did you appoint an official who made a public statement affirming those allegations as fact as someone who's supposed to be doing an investigation?” New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D): “I will answer that. I have 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. That's exactly what's going to happen in this case. Attorney General, please.” New York Attorney General Letitia James: “I will not comment on a Facebook post.” Great question!
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) October 2, 2026
Why did you affirm her allegations as fact without doing your own fact-finding investigation? And to the governor, why did you appoint an official who made a public statement affirming those allegations as fact as someone who's supposed to be doing an investigation?”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D): “I will answer that. I have 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. That's exactly what's going to happen in this case. Attorney General, please.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James: “I will not comment on a Facebook post.”
Great question!
Great question indeed, and this unnamed reporter is not the only one asking it. Perhaps surprisingly, those questions extend to the mainstream media as well as the conservative commentariat. CNN legal analyst Elie Honig rips into both Hochul and James in a New York Magazine essay this morning for pouring gasoline on a fire with the appointment of James, one of the most political state AGs in the nation. New York Magazine has this outside the paywall, too, to their credit as well:
But on Friday, Hochul somehow made it worse when she announced her decision to appoint James as special prosecutor on the Cornell case. Ordinarily, the New York AG has limited criminal jurisdiction, not including sexual-assault matters. But the law empowers the governor to specifically task the AG with investigating and, if appropriate, charging any particular case, as Hochul has done here.
James is a deeply problematic selection for the most basic of reasons: She has already publicly prejudged this case. In a September 28 social-media post — four days before her appointment — James declared, “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 single most indispensable trait in any prosecutor — especially here, in a politically and emotionally charged case under a national spotlight — is impartiality. Yet James drew her conclusion and announced it to the world before she had access to an iota of evidence.
Imagine being called to a scene where there's contradictory evidence and testimony that a crime had even been committed, and declaring even before your arrival that the butler did it. That's what James and Hochul have already done in this case, Honig argues, and neither of them has an explanation for it. In fact, as Honig noted, James didn't even bother to try:
Tellingly, James — an experienced lawyer and powerful politician who is perfectly capable of defending herself — was unwilling (or unable) to do so. At Friday’s press conference to announce James’s appointment, a reporter asked the AG the perfectly valid question “Why did you affirm her allegations as fact without doing your own fact-finding investigation?” James responded, “I will not comment on a Facebook post” — a humiliating cop-out in which the attorney general refused to discuss her own words on the precise subject of her appointment.
Honig then launches into a review of James' legal and ethical lapses as AG, most of them involving Donald Trump. He might lose some of New York Magazine's readers in this section, but he hits the nail on the head in demonstrating her partisan manipulation of the legal system to suit her political objectives. None of the revelations will surprise Hot Air readers, as we covered her 'fraud' lawsuit in great detail, except perhaps its current status as of April 2025:
A New York appeals court on Thursday dismissed a $500 million civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump and his companies for routinely over-valuing their properties in financial statements.
Some judges of the state Appellate Division's First Department agreed that Trump and his companies had engaged in fraud, but agreed with their colleagues that the award was an "excessive fine."
"[W]hile harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half billion-dollar award to the State," two of the judges wrote.
Honig is not the only legal analyst throwing a flag on Hochul's play. Jonathan Turley raised similar objections on Sunday:
Faced with a prosecutor who had previously declined charges (but was reopening the case), Gov. Hochul condemned the university and played to her base. She promised her own prosecutor.
She then picked the one prosecutor who surpasses [disgraced and disbarred NC prosecutor Michael] Nifong in the Duke case in her reputation for putting politics ahead of prosecutorial integrity: Attorney General Letitia James.
James was elected on a pledge to weaponize the legal system against President Donald Trump, promising that she would prosecute Trump without specifying any crime. She is known as one of the most political prosecutors in the country, using her office to pursue groups and individuals on the right. Former staffers recently condemned her for converting them into “Tish’s personal attorneys … targeting her political enemies.”
Hochul’s appointment of James maximizes the chances of a criminal charge in the case. James has always followed the policy of the Queen of Hearts in “Alice in Wonderland”: “Sentence first, verdict afterward.”
This was precisely the worst possible choice for this case, for that reason. This has become a politicized scandal that is already tipping over into a lynch mob before anyone has established that a crime actually took place. Both Honig and Turley provide a calm and rational review of what has already transpired, and both make the case that further investigation is warranted, but an investigation by impartial prosecutors rather than a witch hunt by partisan cranks. An impartial investigation by a truly independent prosecutor – Honig suggests a few, all good choices – would build public confidence in whatever charging decisions follow.
Now, however, no one will take those decisions seriously. If James files criminal charges against the frat boys, it will look like a kangaroo court. If she fails to charge them, James will look like an idiot, and James doesn't have the character to let that happen. Worse, this political manipulation will likely poison the plaintiff's civil lawsuit, which might have settled some of these questions without state intervention.
Hochul and James have gone all in to politicize a questionable claim in order to aggrandize themselves at the expense of justice. It should stain both of their reputations for the rest of their public lives. And even the mainstream media is starting to realize it.
The latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! Today's show features:
- Republicans owe Angela Paxton big-league after her campaign ad in Texas. Will the GOP remember it?
- Andrew Malcolm and I discuss the ad, its implications, and how it may help resolve an apparent enthusiasm gap in Texas for Ken Paxton.
- Plus, we talk about the cultural rot in college sports and where the blame falls for it.
The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!
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