Second Cornell defendant seeks James's removal as special prosecutor

Attorney general defends social media remarks, cites governor’s assignment

Winston Lee’s attorney, Teny Geragos, asked a judge Friday to remove New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the alleged 2024 gang rape of a Cornell University student, according to United Press International.

The filing argues that James “has already publicly prejudged the guilt” of the seven defendants through public statements she made after Gov. Kathy Hochul assigned her the case. Lee joins codefendant Gillio Lopes, whose attorneys filed a similar removal motion Wednesday.

At issue are comments James posted on X when she was assigned the post: “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. To her and all other survivors: You’re not alone. We stand with you.”

Lee’s filing accused James and Hochul of having “together created a blatant appearance of impropriety.” “This public political stunt by the Governor and the AG to make repeated public statements, remove the case from the elected county prosecutor, and prejudge guilt in a criminal investigation for political advantage a month before election day is unethical and in violation of the law,” Lee’s attorney, Teny Geragos, said in a court filing Friday. The filing added: “The AG is unquestionably biased, as her own public statements show.”

In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for James said the attorney general is “committed to conducting a comprehensive review of nothing but the facts, the evidence, and the law.” Speaking to ABC News on Thursday, James defended her earlier remarks. “Those comments demonstrate empathy, and what we need now more than ever in our body politic is more empathy,” she said.

“The governor of the great state of New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul, assigned me to analyze this case and to judge it and to do it without bias,” James said in the same interview. “She’s requesting an unbiased investigation and a thorough investigation, and we will do that based on the facts and based on the evidence.”

Both Lee and Lopes have denied sexually assaulting the woman, known in court papers only as Jane Doe. The woman, who was 20 at the time, told police she was assaulted in 2024 by seven men in a fraternity on the Cornell campus in Ithaca, New York. Giuffra said she was pressured into taking the drug ketamine and was incapable of providing consent because she was “completely intoxicated.”

James was assigned as special prosecutor years after a local prosecutor received the woman’s report alleging gang rape but filed no charges in the case, according to the UPI report. The woman’s lawyers filed a civil lawsuit in the case last month, drawing public scrutiny and renewing calls for criminal charges.