As a tempest swirls around Cornell University amid a high-profile case of alleged sexual misconduct, the college has appointed a former acting U.S. Attorney General to investigate.
The bare facts of the polarizing 2024 incident are that a woman had sex with multiple members of a Cornell fraternity.
A lawsuit filed in September alleges the incident was gang rape at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity. The woman, identified as Jane Doe, said she was too intoxicated to consent to sexual activity and took ketamine under pressure, according to USA Today.
The lawsuit names seven males who belonged to the fraternity at the time, as well as the fraternity, the university, and others. Cornell investigated the incident at the time. The men involved have all denied allegations against them.
I never thought that there was a paucity of lawyers in New York, but it seems that they are rounding up the usual suspects in politicized litigation. First, Gov. Hochul appoints Letitia James, the single most political AG in the country, as special counsel. https://t.co/15x8zz4LLn Now Cornell has hired Sally Yates as its investigator. https://t.co/VEbEScfGsd Yates ordered Justice Department attorneys not to assist Trump after he was elected in 2016 on his immigration policies. https://t.co/iLdot76EpO …
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) October 6, 2026
As noted by The New Yorker, a welter of confusing and contradictory evidence has appeared, much of which indicates what might be called revolting and reprehensible conduct, but the issue of rape is less clear.
For example, texts surfaced apparently inviting men to have sex with the women, while texts also surfaced in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 19, 2024 incident, in which Jane Doe appears to brush off the evening.
As the case makes headlines day after day, Cornell has responded by hiring Sally Yates to investigate.
Yates will join fellow Democrats Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James in investigating the case. Although she comes with service that included being the deputy attorney general at the Justice Department, and acting Attorney General after President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, the appointee of former President Barack Obama also comes with the black mark of having been fired days into Trump’s term.
@Cornell I thought you were serious about an outside investigation, that is until I see you’ve engaged Sally Yates.
I am not longer convinced you want any depth in the investigation, sadly!— Me (@lvirish126) October 6, 2026
As noted by WNBC-TV, Yates was fired for refusing to defend in court Trump’s ban on immigration from certain countries. Trump called that an act of insubordination, saying she had “betrayed the Department of Justice,” and fired her.
But on Tuesday, Cornell said she had been hired “to lead a comprehensive independent review of how the University prevents and responds to sexual harassment, sexual assault and related misconduct on campus.”
Although the release announcing that Yates would be investigating said the scope was wide-ranging, it noted that “Yates and her team will conduct a detailed review of the University’s response to the allegations involving Jane Doe and members of the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024, including whether Cornell followed its policies and procedures in responding to the matter.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. Can’t Cornell keep this apolitical?
Can’t they find a hardworking prosecutor who has not previously indulged in self-righteous grandstanding and troubling bureaucratic activism?
This incident doesn’t need a partisan crusader. It needs a credible, nonpartisan factfinder with out an agenda.
Sally Yates is the opposite of that.
But that, of course, assumes that Cornell wants a fair and objective review.
They don’t.
They want to feed the mob.They like the mob.
They train the mob leaders.— Cerebral Political Perspectives (@informedviewer) October 6, 2026
“Sally Yates brings extraordinary experience, independence and judgment to this work,” Anne Meinig Smalling, Chair of the Special Committee investigating the incident.
“The questions raised by the Jane Doe matter warrant a rigorous examination of Cornell’s response to that case, but our responsibility is broader. We have asked Ms. Yates and her team to examine Cornell’s overall approach to preventing and responding to sexual misconduct, identify where we are doing things well and where we can do better, and recommend changes that will help make our community safer,” Smalling said.
The review will also assess Cornell’s existing rules for responding to sexual assault allegations in the context of “Title IX, the Clery Act, the Violence Against Women Act’s Campus SaVE Act and New York State law, as well as recognized best practices in higher education for preventing and responding to sexual misconduct.”
Cornell said Yates “led U.S. Soccer’s independent investigation into allegations of abusive behavior and sexual misconduct in women’s professional soccer.”
Yates is a partner in the law firm King & Spalding.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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