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Page A3From§Eachthe milkman edition — 6 October 2026

Letitia James called compromised by the President before her appointment, by the defense after it.

By SalStaff Writer

“Cornell Faculty Members Signal Deep Anger With University Leaders”, 6 October 2026 (Photo via The New York Times — the original report)

As it ran on the front

Cornell held the allegation for two years before anyone outside the university held a title tied to it. A fraternity member is accused of raping a student at a Cornell house in October 2024, and the university's own process did not resolve it in all that time. On September 30, Senator Chuck Schumer called the case "horrifying" and asked that it get "no stone unturned." The hearing covered policy; the delay itself has not had one.

On October 2, Jane Doe's attorney, Thomas Giuffra, told CBS that Doe was incapable of consent the night in question because she was "completely, grossly intoxicated." The same day, President Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn that the accused men — he called them the "Cornell Seven" — would not get "a fair shake," and called New York Attorney General Letitia James "totally corrupt." James held no formal role in the case when he said it. She got one the next day: on October 3, Governor Kathy Hochul named James special prosecutor.…

…(cont) This week produced the two beats that matter most, and they arrived together. Cornell's faculty senate scheduled a vote of no confidence in the administration — a vote faculties almost never hold — over the two years the file sat closed before any outside appointment existed at all. And an attorney for one of the accused men asked James to step down as special prosecutor, three days into the job the governor had just given her.

Line up the asks. The administration asked for two years before anyone outside it got to look. The governor answered by naming a prosecutor who is on a statewide ballot this year. The defense answered that by asking the prosecutor to step aside too. Each party that has touched this case has made the same move: decide, for everyone else, who gets to investigate it. Trump's complaint about James predates her appointment by a day; the defense's request arrives three days after it. Both aim at the same seat. The seat is the only thing anyone in this story agrees is worth fighting over.

“Every player in this thing found a way to pick their own referee — the university picked silence for two years, the governor picked a prosecutor who's on the same ballot she's running on, and now the defense wants to pick her off too. That's not an investigation, that's a game of musical chairs with a subpoena in the middle. The one person in the whole story with no say in who looks is the student who said she couldn't consent.”
Sal
“Look, the defense is just raising a fair conflict question about a sitting attorney general running statewide — that's not politics, that's procedure. And the President calling her "totally corrupt" from the South Lawn the day before she even got the job, that's a separate matter entirely, that's not — did I say "the day before"? That timing part isn't landing the way I want it to. Forget the South Lawn thing.”
Chip

Earlier in this story

The receipts

· Trump says ‘Cornell Seven’ won’t get a fair shake under Letitia James from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026

· Latest on investigation into alleged rape at Cornell as Letitia James appointed as prosecutor from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026

· Jane Doe's lawyer says "she was incapable of consent" on night of alleged rape at Cornell frat house from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026

This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.