Amid accusations, N.Y. attorney general resigns
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, accused of physically abusing four women, has resigned effective Tuesday. The accusations came in an article published by The New Yorker on Monday. Within hours of the story’s publication, Schneiderman was facing calls to resign, most notably from the state’s democratic governor.
Two women, Michelle Manning Barish and Tanya Selvaratnam, spoke to the magazine on the record and said they were in romantic relationships with Schneiderman when he choked and slapped them, leading them to seek medical treatment. Selvaratnam said Schneiderman warned her he could have her followed and her phones tapped. Both women said he threatened to kill them if they ended their relationships with him, according to the New Yorker. Schneiderman’s spokesman told the magazine that he “never made any of these threats.”
A third woman made similar accusations of nonconsensual physical violence, and a fourth, an attorney who has held high positions in the New York legal sphere, told the New Yorker that after she rejected one of Schneiderman’s advances, he “slapped her across the face with such force that it left a mark that lingered the next day.” All four women said their physical abuse was not consensual.
Schneiderman denies assaulting the women and, in a statement on Twitter, said: “In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity. I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in nonconsensual sex, which is a line I would not cross.”
In a statement Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for an investigation and, “for the good of the office, Schneiderman to resign.
In his resignation, Schneiderman said the allegations were unrelated to his duties as attorney general but would prevent him from effectively running the office.
The allegations against Schneiderman, the top law enforcement official in New York state, come as he has taken on an increased national profile due to his repeated legal challenges to the Trump administration.
Schneiderman, a Democrat, was first elected in 2010 and was up for a potential third term later this year.