Cornell rape case: Accuser faces threats as university president promises outside review

The woman at the center of the Cornell University fraternity rape case has received multiple threats pressuring her to drop her lawsuit, her attorney said Sunday. The university's president, meanwhile, says an outside law firm will review how Cornell handled her report.

## Attorney says threats are aimed at the lawsuit

"She's received multiple threats," attorney Thomas Giuffra said on CNN's "State of the Union," according to Reuters. Giuffra said he has been threatened too.

According to NBC News, Giuffra said the threats were meant to pressure his client into dropping her civil lawsuit. He also said that women who are not his client have been threatened by people trying to figure out who she is. NBC reported that at least three women have been wrongly targeted this way. Giuffra did not say who sent the threats or whether they had been reported to police, NBC said.

"I'm not afraid of these people," Giuffra said, according to Reuters. He also pushed back on efforts to turn the case into a partisan fight: "It has nothing to do with politics."

In court papers the woman is identified only as Jane Doe. NextGen America does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.

## What the lawsuit alleges

In a civil lawsuit filed last month, the former student says seven members of Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity drugged and raped her at the fraternity house in October 2024, when she was 20, CBS News reported. The suit names the seven former students and the university, which she says failed to protect her.

The accused men have not been criminally charged. An attorney for one of them told CBS that Snapchat messages cited in the case were "inappropriate" but that this "doesn't make my client a rapist." The attorney also said a hair follicle test showed no ketamine in his client's system.

## Cornell's president responds

Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff released a roughly eight-minute video message Saturday night. "What happened to Jane Doe in 2024 is deeply disturbing and will weigh heavily on our community," he said, according to ABC News.

Kotlikoff said the board of trustees will announce next week which outside law firm will carry out an independent review of the university's handling of the case, ABC and The Boston Globe reported. He promised more transparency, said the school will "examine the role of fraternities and sororities in campus life," and said he supports changes to New York's sexual assault laws.

"Being part of a group can never diminish individual responsibility," Kotlikoff said, according to Reuters and the Globe.

According to CBS, Kotlikoff has said that Cornell's internal process ended with two of the accused members expelled and two suspended for at least two semesters. One had already graduated, and two were found not responsible. CBS also reported that the Chi Phi chapter was closed in 2024 and is still barred from campus.

## The criminal investigation

The Tompkins County District Attorney's Office, which declined to bring charges in 2024, reopened its criminal investigation on Sept. 28, CBS reported. On Oct. 1, Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor. James can now investigate the case and decide whether to bring charges.

President Donald Trump criticized that appointment. "I feel badly for whoever she's looking at because they won't get a fair shake," Trump said, according to Reuters. Hochul has said she lost confidence in how local prosecutors handled the case.

The case has also brought new attention to a part of New York law that critics call the "voluntary intoxication loophole," Al Jazeera and The Boston Globe reported. Under that rule, someone who voluntarily drank or used drugs generally isn't treated as legally incapacitated in some sexual assault cases.

## Misinformation is spreading too

Online, false content has spread alongside the real reporting. PolitiFact rated "Pants on Fire" a set of TikTok videos that claimed to show the alleged assault. The fact-checker found the clips came from unrelated incidents, including a 2019 California assault caught on a doorbell camera.

## What happens next

The Cornell board of trustees is expected to name the outside firm for its independent review next week. James's office is now in charge of the criminal investigation, and any decision on charges is up to her. The civil lawsuit is proceeding separately.

If you see a post claiming to name the accuser or show video of the incident, don't share it. Nothing like that has been verified, and at least three uninvolved women have already been targeted because of false identifications, according to NBC.