A defense attorney has asked a New York court to remove Attorney General Letitia James from a Cornell University rape investigation, saying her public statements already declared the accused men guilty.
Teny Geragos filed the motion Thursday in Tompkins County court seeking to strip James of her role as special prosecutor. Geragos represents one of seven former Chi Phi fraternity members named in a civil lawsuit by a former Cornell student identified as Jane Doe.
Fox News Digital reported the filing argues James prejudged the case and prejudiced potential grand jurors with her earlier comments supporting the accuser.
The motion lands as James serves as special prosecutor after local authorities reopened the matter. It also follows a separate removal request filed days earlier in Albany State Supreme Court by another man named in the lawsuit.
Geragos told the court the public cannot trust charging decisions from someone who has already taken a side.
"The public cannot, and should not, have any confidence in the investigation or charging decisions of someone who has clearly prejudged the guilt of individuals who the law presumes are innocent."
She added a direct demand: "The AG should be removed."
On Sept. 28, the same day local prosecutor Matthew Van Houten announced he would reopen the case, James posted a message of support for Jane Doe on social media.
"What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers."
James continued: "To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you."
Geragos argued those words showed James believed the seven men were guilty "despite not having examined a shred of evidence" at that point. The filing says the posts have already tainted any grand jury process.
The New York Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the motion.
That recusal fight fits a broader pattern of pressure on James, including a recent push for her to leave the Cornell assault probe over the same prior remarks.
Jane Doe’s civil lawsuit, filed in September, accuses seven former Chi Phi members of drugging and raping her on the night of Oct. 19, 2024, and into the next morning at the fraternity house in Ithaca, N.Y.
The complaint alleges she arrived already intoxicated and that the men pressured her into taking ketamine and other substances. Cornell suspended the fraternity on Nov. 8, 2024, the same day Doe reported sexual assault allegations to campus police, according to the suit.
The seven men have denied wrongdoing. Some maintain any sexual activity was consensual. Others deny they took part at all.
Van Houten initially declined to pursue charges. When he later described Doe’s November 2024 sworn statement, he said it did not allege she was drugged against her will or gang-raped. Instead, the statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as "voluntary, conscious, and consensual."
That gap between the civil complaint and the sworn statement remains central to the dispute over how the criminal case should proceed.
Geragos also accused Gov. Kathy Hochul of picking James because of those "prejudicial public statements," arguing the governor expects a particular outcome.
At an Oct. 2 press conference, Hochul rejected any suggestion of a problem.
"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."
A Hochul spokesperson later pointed back to that same answer when asked about the removal effort.
James’s record has already drawn sharp scrutiny in the attorney general’s race, where GOP challenger Saritha Komatireddy dominated James in a recent debate on crime and accountability.
Special prosecutors are supposed to bring distance and fairness when local conflicts arise. Geragos contends James did the opposite by speaking as an advocate for the accuser before reviewing evidence or sitting as a neutral investigator.
The motion stresses that the law still presumes the seven men innocent. Public confidence, Geragos wrote, cannot survive a prosecutor who has already announced which side she is on.
Van Houten’s reopening of the case on Sept. 28 handed the matter new life. James’s appointment then placed New York’s top law enforcement officer in charge of decisions that could include charges, a grand jury presentation, or a second decision to decline prosecution.
James has faced repeated questions about even-handed enforcement during her tenure, a theme that surfaced again when Saritha Komatireddy pressed James hard in a heated New York AG debate over crime policy and bail.
Geragos, daughter of prominent criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, framed the issue as basic due process rather than a technicality. The filing asks the Tompkins County court to remove James so the investigation can proceed without the appearance of a pre-written ending.
A second defendant had already made a similar request in Albany State Supreme Court days earlier, also citing alleged bias. Together the filings signal coordinated pushback against James’s dual role as both public advocate and decision-maker in the same matter.
Political pressure on James continues outside the courtroom as well. Trump endorsed former federal prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy to unseat James, keeping the attorney general’s race focused on questions of fairness and selective prosecution.
No ruling on either removal request has been reported. No charges have been announced. The men remain free and continue to deny the lawsuit’s core claims while the special-prosecutor fight plays out.
Cornell’s campus and the Chi Phi house sit at the center of the original allegations. The criminal investigation now sits inside a larger fight over whether the state’s highest law officer can fairly judge a case she has already described in moral terms on social media.
When prosecutors speak like advocates before they examine evidence, the public has every right to doubt the result that follows.