Eric T.
Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general who rose to prominence as an
antagonist of the Trump administration, abruptly resigned on Monday night hours
after The New Yorker reported that four women had accused him of physically
assaulting them.
“It’s
been my great honor and privilege to serve as attorney general for the people
of the State of New York,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. “In the last
several hours, serious allegations, which I strongly contest, have been made
against me.
“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, 2018.”
His
resignation represented a stunning fall for a politician who had also assumed a
prominent role in the #MeToo movement.
Two of the women
who spoke to the magazine, Michelle Manning Barish and Tanya Selvaratnam, said
they had been choked and hit repeatedly by Mr. Schneiderman. Both said they had
sought medical treatment. Another woman, a lawyer, said she was slapped
violently across the face. A fourth woman said she had similar experiences.
All
the women in the article, who had
been romantically involved with Mr. Schneiderman, said the violence was not
consensual.
Mr. Schneiderman,
63, denied abusing the women, saying in a statement: “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.”
But
not long after the allegations were made public, many of his allies, including
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who like Mr. Schneiderman is a Democrat, called for him
to step down.
“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,”
Mr. Cuomo said.
The call was echoed
by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who led the charge to oust Al Franken from
the Senate. “The violent actions described by multiple women in this story are
abhorrent,” she said in a statement. “Based on this extensive and serious
reporting, I do not believe that Eric Schneiderman should continue to serve as
attorney general.”
Under
New York’s Constitution, Mr. Schneiderman’s replacement will be selected by the
State Assembly and Senate by joint ballot — effectively placing the decision in
the hands of the Assembly, which has many more members.
The
Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, planned to discuss possible replacements on
Tuesday, according to Michael Whyland, a spokesman for Mr. Heastie. Whoever is
chosen to fill out Mr. Schneiderman’s term could then seek election in
November.
No
Democrat had declared an intention to challenge Mr. Schneiderman, who was up
for re-election this year, in the primary; Manny Alicandro, a corporate lawyer
from New York City, is running as a Republican and officially declared his
candidacy on Monday.
Since
2017, Mr. Schneiderman had raised his profile nationally by taking on President
Trump’s agenda repeatedly in the courts. He was pushing to change state law so
that his office could prosecute Mr. Trump’s aides even if the president pardoned
them; his resignation makes the status of that effort less certain.
Women’s
issues had also been a focal point for Mr. Schneiderman, who had announced, for
instance, a lawsuit against
the company once run by the former filmmaker Harvey Weinstein, who was accused
of decades of sexual misconduct. “We have never seen anything as despicable as
what we’ve seen right here,” Mr. Schneiderman said then.
Ms. Manning Barish, in The New Yorker account,
described being slapped by Mr. Schneiderman after they had both been drinking;
she and Ms. Selvaratnam said several of the attacks occurred after alcohol had
been consumed.
“It was
horrendous,” she said. “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.”
Debra
S. Katz, a lawyer for Ms. Manning Barish, said that it was Mr. Schneiderman’s
“fantasy and his fantasy alone that the behavior was welcome.”
Mr.
Schneiderman, she continued, “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.”
Ms.
Selvaratnam told the magazine that Mr. Schneiderman routinely drank to excess
during their relationship, and that the physical abuse in bed got worse the
longer she was with him. “We could rarely have sex without him beating me,” she
said.
The
abuse was also verbal and emotional, she said. “He started calling me his
‘brown slave’ and demanding that I repeat that I was ‘his property.’”
Both
Ms. Manning Barish and Ms. Selvaratnam have in recent days repeatedly declined
to comment when reporters for The New York Times asked them to address the
allegations.
“After
I found out that other women had been abused by Attorney General Schneiderman
in a similar manner many years before me, I wondered, who’s next, and knew
something needed to be done,” Ms. Selvaratnam said in a statement released
Monday night. “So I chose to come forward both to protect women who might enter
into a relationship with him in the future but also to raise awareness around
the issue of intimate partner violence.”
Ms.
Manning Barish followed the article’s publication with a post on Twitter,
saying that she “could not remain silent and encourage other women to be brave
for me.”
After the most difficult month of my life-I spoke up. For my daughter and for all women. I could not remain silent and encourage other women to be brave for me. I could not... https://t.co/HvL5ech0RM— M Manning Barish (@MichelleBarish) May 7, 2018
Mr. Schneiderman’s
former wife said she was taken aback by the allegations being leveled against
him.
“I’ve
known Eric for nearly 35 years as a husband, father and friend,” said Jennifer
Cunningham, his ex-wife and frequent political strategist. “These allegations
are completely inconsistent with the man I know, who has always been someone of
the highest character, outstanding values and a loving father.”
Mr.
Schneiderman has long been regarded as one of the state’s most progressive
politicians, even before his 2013 lawsuit against Trump University and his
subsequent suits against the Trump administration made him the darling of the
political left. Last fall, Mr. Schneiderman’s office proudly pointed to a
segment on the late-night comedy show “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” in
which the attorney general was described as “a hero who stood up to democracy’s nemesis,” a
Superman-like character known as Schneider-man.
His
credentials as an advocate for women, in particular, had gone unquestioned.
In
2010, as a state senator from Manhattan, he introduced a bill to
make intentional strangulation to the point of unconsciousness a violent
felony. That same year, the National Organization for Women’s New York branch
endorsed him in his successful bid for attorney general, citing his “unmatched
work” in “protecting women who are victims of domestic abuse.”
For
several years, his office has published a “Know Your Rights”
brochure for victims of domestic violence. “We must recognize that our work
keeping New Yorkers safe from domestic violence is far from over,” Mr.
Schneiderman said in the announcement for the 2016 brochure.
At the direction of Governor Cuomo, he was reviewing the
2015 decision by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., not to
prosecute Mr. Weinstein after an Italian model accused him of groping her.
Mr. Vance’s office
released a statement late Monday, saying that it had “opened an investigation
into the recently reported allegations concerning Mr. Schneiderman.”
Some
national Republicans were gleeful at the allegations. The Republican research
shop America Rising quickly packaged Mr. Schneiderman’s ties to other prominent
national Democrats.
Also
on Monday evening, Mr. Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., dug up anold tweet
from Mr. Schneiderman in which he said “No one is above the law” and tweeted at
him, “You were saying???”
By
night’s end, Mr. Schneiderman had retained a criminal defense lawyer from the
law firm of Lankler Siffert & Wohl, a person with knowledge of the matter
said.
Reporting
was contributed by Ellen Gabler, Shane Goldmacher, Jesse McKinley and William
K. Rashbaum.
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