New York’s top prosecutor quits amid sex assault claims
ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN, the top prosecutor in New York – who positioned himself as a champion of the #Metoo movement – has resigned after being accused of physically assaulting four women.
The accusations included one that he called a Sri Lankan-born girlfriend his “brown slave” and demanded that she call him “master”.
Mr Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, had been leading an investigation relating to allegations of abuse by Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie producer. He had also become a high profile critic of Donald Trump and his administration on a number of issues including immigration. Following his resignation Kellyanne Conway, counsellor to the president, wrote on Twitter: “Gotcha.”
The allegations were published in The New Yorker magazine and two of the women allowed their names to be published. They alleged that Mr Schneiderman, 63, repeatedly hit them, often after drinking heavily, frequently in bed, and never with their consent.
Both women said they sought medical attention after being choked and slapped. Tanya Selvaratnam, a Harvardeducated, Sri Lankan-born author and activist, said she was in a relationship with Mr Schneiderman in 2016 and 2017.
She said: “Sometimes, he’d tell me to call him ‘Master’ and he’d slap me until I did. He started calling me his ‘brown slave’ and demanding that I repeat that I was ‘his property’. We could rarely have sex without him beating me.”
Michelle Manning Barish told the magazine she was in a relationship with the attorney general in 2013 and 2014 when he became violent. She confided in friends including Sir Salman Rushdie, the novelist.
In his resignation statement Mr Schneiderman disputed the women’s accounts. He 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.”
None of the women complained to police, but the Manhattan district attorney’s office issued a statement saying it would look into the claims.