New York
state’s top prosecutor, a public champion of the #MeToo movement, resigned on
Monday hours after being accused by The New Yorker magazine of
physically
assaulting four women.
It was an
abrupt fall from power for Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general and
a Donald Trump opponent whose office had launched multiple legal challenges
against the Republican administration.
“In the last
several hours, serious allegations, which I strongly contest, have been made
against me,” Schneiderman said in a statement.
“While these
allegations are unrelated to my professional conduct or the operations of the
office, they will effectively prevent me from leading the office’s work at this
critical time. I therefore resign my office, effective at the close of business
on May 8.”
Two of the
women spoke to the magazine on the record, alleging that Schneiderman repeatedly
hit them, often after drinking, frequently in bed and never with their consent.
Both say
they sought medical attention after having been slapped hard across the ear and
face, and also choked, the magazine said.
The New
Yorker said none of the women classified the behavior as consensual.
Earlier,
Schneiderman issued a statement denying that he had assaulted anyone or that he
had ever engaged in non-consensual sex.
“In the
privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual
sexual activity,” he said.
Nothing ‘as
despicable’
Schneiderman
is the latest powerful man to fall in the wake of the avalanche of sexual
misconduct allegations from women that have poured forth since the Harvey
Weinstein scandal broke late last year and effectively ended the Hollywood
movie producer’s career.
In February,
Schneiderman sued The Weinstein Company for failing to protect its employees
from the disgraced mogul despite multiple complaints from staff.
“We have
never seen anything as despicable as what we’ve seen right here,” Schneiderman
said then.
He had also
been instructed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to review a 2015 decision by
the Manhattan district attorney not to prosecute Weinstein over allegations of
assault.
One of the
women named in The New Yorker story described her experiences with Schneiderman
as awful.
Michelle
Manning Barish said he slapped her after they had been drinking.
“It was
horrendous,” she told the magazine.
“It just
came out of nowhere. My ear was ringing. I lost my balance and fell backward
onto the bed.
“I sprang
up, but at this point there was very little room between the bed and him. I got
up to try to shove him back, or take a swing, and he pushed me back down. He
then used his body weight to hold me down, and he began to choke me. The
choking was very hard. It was really bad. I kicked. In every fiber, I felt I
was being beaten by a man,” she said.
After the
allegations against Schneiderman emerged, fellow Democrat Cuomo urged him to resign.
“My personal
opinion is that, given the damning pattern of facts and corroboration laid out
in the article, I do not believe it is possible for Eric Schneiderman to
continue to serve as attorney general,” Cuomo said.
Schneiderman
“has made a career railing against this type of abuse. Yet apparently he
intends to revictimize these courageous women who have come forward by pulling
out that age old sexist trope that they wanted it,” said Debra Katz, a lawyer
for Manning Barish.
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