Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/01/letitia-james-cornell-gang-rape

Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, said on Thursday she was appointing Letitia James, the state’s attorney general, as special prosecutor to investigate the alleged gang-rape at Cornell University.

“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,” Hochul said in a statement. “This action will ensure that the matter is fully and thoroughly investigated without conflict or bias, and handled independently with the rigor that this matter demands.”

In her statement, Hochul said the decision by Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins county ⁠district attorney, not to prosecute the 2024 case, and the questions raised in recent days over the Cornell police department’s investigation of the allegations, have “undercut my faith, and the public’s faith, in the district attorney’s ability to effectively investigate and prosecute the case at this time”.

World news had to remove the only other post about this, so I'm putting it back up here.

What an embarrassing month for US Americans. First this, then Iran continues to hold Trump for the clown he is, then the execution of a criminal is botched (huh?), then the government needs to beg for diesel fuel from G7, and finally the word “Trump” falls of the collapsing Kennedy Center. It’s a joke of a country.

I hate living here. Wish I had Canadian ancestors.

Oooh, this is going to upset a lot of the same people who were already upset at the idea of alleged rapists facing possible consequences.

After CBS News this week revealed details from the police interview transcript, he told the network he had never seen her detailed account and had relied instead on a statement written by a campus police officer and signed by the accuser.

Wow