'Rapist Siding With Rapists': Trump 'Feels Badly' for Cornell Gang-Rape Suspects as Letitia James Takes Over

Donald Trump said on Friday that he feels badly for seven men under investigation over allegations of a gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity, after New York Attorney General Letitia James was appointed special prosecutor in the case.

The president made the remarks outside the White House on Friday 2 October 2026, a day after New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order giving James the case.

A woman identified in court filings as Jane Doe alleges that seven men drugged and sexually assaulted her for more than four hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024. None of the men had been criminally charged as of Friday, and Trump did not mention her.

'They Won't Get a Fair Shake'

Trump was answering a question from Fox News reporter Peter Doocy as he left for a campaign rally in Mobile, Alabama. 'Letitia James is a corrupt person. She's totally corrupt, and I can't imagine it,' he said. 'And I feel badly for whoever she's looking at because they won't get a fair shake,' according to a transcript of the exchange.

He extended the sympathy to the institutions as well. Trump said he also felt badly for Cornell, the local district attorney and the university police, The Independent reported, in his second set of remarks on the case and the second without any reference to the woman at its centre.

He followed up online. 'Why would the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, appoint a Corrupt Prosecutor, Letitia "Peekaboo" James, to represent the State in the highly controversial Cornell University rape case?' he wrote on Truth Social.

Hochul Loses Faith in Tompkins County

The governor removed the case from local hands. 'New information has raised serious questions about how this case was handled, and I've lost faith in the Tompkins County DA's ability to fairly oversee it,' Hochul wrote on X, after naming James by executive order on Thursday.

The Tompkins County district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, had reopened the investigation before the appointment.

James has said the matter is an active criminal investigation and that she will review the evidence and pursue prosecutions if warranted, while Hochul separately called for an independent review of how Cornell handled the case, CBS New York reported.

Jane Doe has also filed a civil lawsuit, and attorneys for at least some of the men have denied wrongdoing.

A Prosecutor Trump Has Fought for Years

The pair have a long history. James brought the civil fraud case against Trump and his business in New York. In August 2025 an appeals court overturned the monetary penalty, originally about £262 million ($355 million) and more than £380 million ($515 million) with interest, while leaving the underlying fraud finding intact.

The Trump administration's Justice Department later indicted James on federal bank fraud and false statement charges related to a mortgage application. A federal judge dismissed the indictment in November 2025 after finding that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor who secured it, had been unlawfully appointed.

Critics seized on the president's remarks. In a widely shared post on X, the user Jamie Bonkiewicz described Trump as a 'rapist siding with rapists', a characterisation referring to Trump's own record in the courts.

That record needs to be stated precisely. In May 2023 a federal civil jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s, but did not find that he had raped her as New York law then defined the term.

The trial judge later wrote that the jury's finding corresponded to rape in its common, everyday meaning. Trump denies Carroll's account and has never been criminally charged over it, and a federal appeals court upheld the verdict on 30 December 2024.

A president who has called the attorney general corrupt for years is now publicly casting doubt on her investigation into an alleged rape while it is still under way, without mentioning the woman who alleges the assault.

If you have been affected by sexual violence, help is available. In the US, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is on 800-656-4673. In the UK, the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, run by Rape Crisis England and Wales, is open 24 hours a day on 0808 500 2222.