University leaders may face a no-confidence vote by the Faculty Senate over their response to allegations of sexual assault on campus.
Page B1From§Eachthe early evening edition — 6 October 2026
Cornell confirms fourth overseer for rape case National Review already declared "worked."
As it ran on the front
"The System Worked," National Review's verdict this week on Cornell University's handling of a 2024 fraternity gang-rape allegation, was born on the magazine's website and needed, within the same news cycle, backup.
The verdict's baseline was already on record. The New York Post reported September 30 that Cornell expelled or dismissed just 13 percent of the sexual-misconduct claims it investigated between 2018 and 2024 — about one student a year. That is the system National Review called a success.…
…(cont) Three days earlier, by this column's own account, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's "no stone unturned" had already died, buried the day the public learned the Tompkins County district attorney declined to bring charges without reading the evidence Cornell police had collected. Governor Kathy Hochul answered that on October 2 by naming Attorney General Letitia James special prosecutor to take the case the district attorney let go, and telling Politico she would move to close the state's voluntary-intoxication loophole — the provision that makes it hard to prove assault when a victim chose to drink. The same day, Jane Doe's lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, told CBS News the university's real posture was a "cover-up," officials more worried about Cornell's name than about accountability.
By Tuesday the case National Review called solved required a fourth overseer. Cornell's trustees confirmed Sally Yates, the former deputy attorney general, to review the same disciplinary process the Post's 13 percent had already described, joining James's prosecution and the Faculty Senate's no-confidence push. The same Tuesday, a lawyer for one of the accused students asked the BBC to report that James herself should be disqualified — not for anything she did as prosecutor, but for comments she made before anyone appointed her to the job. One case, one working system, and now a motion to remove the one official in it with the power to file a charge.
The BBC's companion piece explained the loophole Hochul meant to fix: a victim's own choice to drink can be read, under current law, as consent to whatever followed. That is the gap four overseers are now paid to study and zero legislators have yet voted to close. Calling that arrangement a success is not analysis. It is malarkey with a dateline, and the dateline is this week.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that Albany pass the voluntary-intoxication fix before Cornell needs a fifth overseer.
“Four separate people now get paid to watch Cornell watch itself, and the one number that hasn't moved all week is thirteen percent, the expulsion rate, same before Yates ever got a phone call. That's not a review, that's a waiting room with better lawyers in it, and the lawyers just tried to fire the one person in the building with subpoena power.”
“Nobody's saying the special prosecutor did anything wrong on the job — the motion is about comments she made before she had the job, and courts review that kind of impartiality question all the time, that's just due process working. I'm not saying it's convenient the defense found this concern the same week four reviewers got stacked on the case — did I say convenient? Strike that, I didn't say anything.”
Earlier in this story
- National Review calls the system a success the day a third reviewer arrives and one faces removal. By Mort · the supper edition, 6 October 2026
- Schumer's 'no stone unturned' vow survived by the stone no prosecutor turned. By Mort · the early bird edition, 6 October 2026
- DOJ prosecutors ignored their own evidence; a judge dismissed their case with prejudice, permanently. By Mort · the matinee edition, 6 October 2026
The receipts
A longtime federal prosecutor, she became known in 2017 for refusing to enforce President Trump’s ban on travelers to the U.S. from predominantly Muslim countries.
Cornell University said Tuesday it is bringing on a former Justice Department official to review its handling of sexual misconduct claims, including the alleged 2024 sexual assault of a former student at a fraternity house.
Chi Phi Matthew Ingalls said in a seething email to campus officials that the school was guilty of “gender discrimination” and “entrapment” as it conducted its probe into the alleged horror.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the rape allegations, but the lawyer says comments she made on the case should disqualify her.
Cornell University has retained former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to lead an independent review of how Cornell responds to sexual assault cases.
Cornell University, facing growing criticism of how it handled allegations of a 2024 gang rape in a fraternity house, has hired a former top Justice Department official to lead what it calls an independent review. Lilia Luciano has more details.
RAPE LAW LOOPHOLE: Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed today to close a loophole embedded in state rape law around voluntary intoxification as she laced into Cornell University police and a local district attorney for their handling of a 2024 gang rape allegation. Under current law, proving sexual assault is difficult if a victim voluntarily…
The BBC speaks to experts about current US state sexual assault laws and why some believe changing them will help alleged victims.
School trustees appoint Sally Yates to review policies as university grapples with fallout from alleged frat gang rape A former high-ranking Department of Justice official will look at how Cornell handles sexual misconduct complaints, university trustees announced on Tuesday as they tried to address an outpouring of anger over…
· Jane Doe's lawyer accuses Cornell of a "cover-up" in rape case from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Just 13% of Cornell sexual misconduct claims lead to expulsion, dismissal – and the Ivy League school isn’t alone from the morgue, 30 Sep 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.