Letitia James has a habit of speaking before the evidence. Case in point: Cornell

Prosecutors can have opinions. They shouldn’t announce verdicts. On Sept. 28, New York Attorney General Letitia James posted that what the Cornell University accuser “has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable,” adding, “To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.” Three days later, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) named James special prosecutor in that case. It wasn’t her first time talking before she had evidence.The allegations are unproven, and the accused are presumed innocent. A former student alleges in a lawsuit that she was coerced into taking drugs at a Chi Phi house in 2024, then sexually assaulted and gang raped. Seven men are named. One of them, Gillio Lopes, denies it, and no criminal charges have been announced. The Tompkins County, New York, district attorney, who declined to pursue charges in 2024, says the accuser’s sworn statement that November did not allege she was drugged against her will or gang raped. I don’t know what happened in that house. James hadn’t been handed the case when she posted. Recommended Stories Read the post closely. “Forced to endure” treats the ordeal as established. “Survivors” implies an assault occurred. “We stand with you” picks a side. James’s office says the investigation will be “guided only by the facts and the law,” yet Lopes’s lawyers petitioned on Oct. 7 to void her appointment, and a judge set arguments for Oct. 29. Asked about the post, James said, “I will not comment on a Facebook post.” Two groups lose when a prosecutor picks a side early. The accuser needs a case that survives appeal. Seven young men need the presumption of innocence to mean something while their names circulate. In my years as an expert witness, I’ve learned to ask three questions about any quote: Who said it, when, and where is the original? Looking at James’s 2018 history, we can sort the record into tiers.The first tier is ordinary campaigning. James promised in campaign videos to “take on President Donald Trump,” and at a July 19, 2018, Bronx Democratic Party event, she said she looked forward to suing him every day she held the office. Voters knew what they were buying. The second tier is a September 2018 debate answer. On Trump’s finances, James said, “We need to find out where he’s laundered money.” “Where” assumes the laundering happened. In the same answer, she warned that merely opening an investigation can ruin lives. She understood the stakes in 2018. Seven young men’s lives are in the balance now.Weeks after winning, James told NBC News she would use “every area of the law” to investigate Trump and his family. Her saltier vow to be a pain in his posterior was posted to Instagram on Nov. 7, the day after the election, and PolitiFact says the video was apparently recorded before the vote.LETITIA JAMES IS TURNING THE ‘CORNELL SEVEN’ CASE INTO DUKE LACROSSE 2.0James’s defenders have an answer, and a liberal judge accepted it. In May 2022, Obama-nominated U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes dismissed Trump’s federal suit to block the investigation and wrote that there was no evidence of political animus. Trump dropped his appeal in January 2023. James also told Rachel Maddow in August 2019 that the vendetta claim was untrue. In August 2025, an appeals court upheld the finding that Trump inflated his property values, though it voided the roughly $500 million penalty. Those rulings cover her Trump case. They say nothing about Cornell.So what does the record show? Hostility to Trump, openly campaigned on. A debate phrase that reads like prejudgment. No court finding of improper bias. New York courts generally require actual prejudice before removing a prosecutor, although the Court of Appeals has ruled that appearance alone can justify removal in rare cases. The law sets a floor, and public trust sits well above it. Fierce talk about a president is politics. A public embrace of one side in a sexual assault allegation, before her office had been handed the case, puts real people in the crosshairs. James should step aside, name outside counsel with final charging authority, and let the evidence do the talking.Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University and has completed postgraduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Pennsylvania; and Harvard University. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy.