The attorney for one of the students accused of being involved in an alleged gang rape at Cornell University is calling for New York Attorney General Letitia James to recuse herself from the case based on comments she made before her appointment as special prosecutor.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) tapped James to serve as special prosecutor in the Cornell gang rape case on Thursday, saying the attorney general would “investigate this incident and, if warranted, prosecute any offenses arising from that investigation and present evidence to a grand jury.” But Andrew Miltenberg, the attorney representing one of the seven men accused of raping the woman identified as Jane Doe, now 20, in October 2024, is flagging comments James made before Hochul’s appointment of her, calling on her to step down.

A TIMELINE OF JANE DOE’S ALLEGATIONS OF CORNELL GANG RAPE

On Sept. 28, a few days before Hochul appointed her special prosecutor, James shared an article on social media about the case, writing in her own caption, “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers. To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.”

Miltenberg said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that James’s post “could reasonably be understood as accepting that the alleged conduct occurred” before reviewing the full evidence in the case.

“The issue is not her compassion toward someone alleging sexual assault,” Miltenberg said. “These serious allegations deserve a thorough investigation. The concern is that her statements could reasonably be understood as accepting that the alleged conduct occurred before she assumed responsibility for determining what the evidence establishes.

“Attorney General James has since pledged to conduct the investigation fully and fairly, guided by ‘the facts and the law.’ We welcome that commitment. But public confidence also requires confidence that the evidence is being considered with an open mind and without prejudgment.”

The attorney, who represents a former Chi Phi fraternity brother accused of rape, argued that James should recuse herself and that the state’s investigation should be “led by a prosecutor who has made no prior public statements about the allegations’ merits.”

James was asked about her social media post during a press conference last week, responding, “I will not comment on a Facebook post.”

“As our state’s Chief Law Enforcement Officer, I stand ready to lead a process New Yorkers can trust, guided by the facts and the law,” James said in a statement on her appointment.

The unnamed “Jane Doe” filed a lawsuit in New York on Sept. 16, alleging that seven students within the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University drugged and gang raped her in October 2024. The case was initially reopened by Matthew Van Houten, the district attorney for Tompkins County, New York, but Hochul swapped Van Houten out for James, questioning his “ability to effectively investigate and prosecute the case at this time” after he initially chose not to prosecute the case.

President Donald Trump reacted to the news of James’s appointment on Friday, denouncing Hochul’s decision and calling James a “corrupt person.” Trump himself has publicly condemned James since she investigated his own business dealings as the state’s attorney general.

“I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake,” Trump told reporters on Friday.

Jane Doe’s lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, ripped Trump for his comments on James over the weekend, saying “to politicize something like this is just wrong.

JANE DOE LAWYER RIPS TRUMP’S ‘FAIR SHAKE’ REMARK IN CORNELL RAPE CASE: ‘JUST WRONG’

“There are Republicans whose daughters are getting assaulted,” Giuffra said on CNN’s State of the Union. “There are Democrats whose daughters are getting assaulted. It has nothing to do with politics.”