New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his
resignation Monday night, hours after The New Yorker magazine published allegations of
physical abuse and controlling behavior by four women who had romantic relationships
or encounters with him.
"It’s been my great honor and privilege to serve as
Attorney General for the people of the State of New York," 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
[Tuesday]."
It was not immediately clear who would succeed
Schneiderman, a Democrat who was seeking a third term as attorney general this
November and had been tipped as a possible successor to New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo.
Schneiderman was accused in the wide-ranging report --
co-written by Ronan Farrow -- of hitting and choking women without their
consent, asking to use "about half" of a woman's prescription of the
anti-anxiety drug Xanax, and mocking anti-gun demonstrators including parents
from Sandy Hook Elementary School, the site of the 2012 shooting massacre, as
"losers."
Schneiderman, long a pillar of New York's Democratic
establishment and a critic of President Trump, has cast himself as a supporter
of the #MeToo movement after Farrow uncovered a long list of rape and sexual
harassment accusations against the now-disgraced Hollywood titan Harvey
Weinstein.
WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS BELOW
Two of Schneiderman's accusers, Michelle Manning Barish
and Tanya Selvaratnam, spoke to The New Yorker on the record to document claims
that Schneiderman nonconsensually hit and choked them.
A third woman who also
was involved with Schneiderman told her story to the other two women, but said
she was too frightened to come forward.
A fourth woman said Schneiderman
slapped her when she rebuffed him, but also asked to remain unidentified. The
New Yorker said it vetted the third woman's allegations, and saw a photo of
what the fourth woman said was her injury.
Manning Barish told the magazine that she dated
Schneiderman, now 63, between the summer of 2013 and New Year's Day 2015.
According to her account, Schneiderman started abusing her weeks after their
relationship became physical. Though she reconciled with him after an initial
incident, Manning Barish said that Schneiderman often would slap her during sex
without her consent and made critical comments about her appearance.
He "would almost always drink two bottles of wine in
a night, then bring a bottle of Scotch into the bedroom. He would get absolutely
plastered five nights out of seven," Manning Barish said.
In one instance, she said Schneiderman told her to get a
small tattoo removed from her wrist. According to her, he said the body art was
inappropriate for her if she was to be a politician's wife.
According to the article, Manning Barish said
Schneiderman "would be 'shaking me and grabbing my face' while demanding
that she repeat such things as 'I'm a little wh---.'" On another occasion,
Manning Barish says that Schneiderman told her "If you ever left me, I'd
kill you."
Manning Barish said Schneiderman often asked to to refill
her Xanax prescription so that he could take "about half" the pills
for himself. She also said he frequently mocked her activism on behalf of
progressive causes, in once instance referring to anti-gun demonstrators as "losers."
"Taking a strong woman and tearing her to pieces is
[Schneiderman's] jam," she told the magazine.
The acclaimed author Salman Rushdie, who reportedly dated
Manning Barish before Schneiderman did, said she told the novelist about the
alleged abuse. "She called me and told me he had hit her... She was
obviously very upset. I was horrified."
Selvaratnam told the New Yorker she was involved with
Schneiderman between the summer of 2016 and the fall of 2017. She said that he
started physically abusing her in bed and asking her to find another woman for
a threesome. Schneiderman also asked her to "call him Master, and he’d
slap me until I did."
"[H]e started calling me his 'brown slave' and
demanding that I repeat that I was 'his property,'" Selvaratnam told the
magazine.
Selvaratnam also told The New Yorker that she met with
another former girlfriend of Schneiderman in February of this year. The
unidentified woman told Selvaratnam that Schneiderman had slapped, choked and
spat at her and also belittled her appearance.
The woman told Selvaratnam that she had told
"several friends" about Schneiderman's behavior. According to The New
Yorker: "A number of them advised her to keep the story to herself,
arguing that Schneiderman was too valuable a politician for the Democrats to
lose."
Schneiderman, a former New York state senator who was
elected state attorney general in 2010, issued a statement to the magazine
saying: "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."
After the story was published, Schneiderman posted the
same statement on his official Twitter account and a representative emailed the
same statement when contacted for comment by Fox News.
Schneiderman's ex-wife, Jennifer Cunningham, said in a
statement that "I've known Eric for nearly 35 years as a husband, father
and friend. 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. I find it impossible to believe these allegations are
true."
New York politicians from both parties, led by Cuomo, had
called on Schneiderman to resign.
"No one is above the law, including New York's top
legal officer," said Cuomo, who added that he would ask for an
"immediate investigation" and would "proceed as the facts
merit."
Actress Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging Cuomo in the
Democratic primary, tweeted that Schneiderman had made "the right
decision" to resign.
Manny Alicandro, a Republican candidate for attorney
general who had entered the race hours earlier, told the Associated Press that
Schneiderman was "a disgrace and wholly unfit for the role of New York
State's chief legal officer. I believe the accusers. He needs to resign his
office effective immediately and the New York City Police Department needs to
get to work."
An NYPD spokesman said the department had "no
complaints on file" related to Schneiderman.
"If the NYPD receives complaints of a crime, it will
investigate them thoroughly," the spokesman said.
After the story was published Monday night, Manning
Barish tweeted: "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."
In February, Schneiderman filed a civil rights lawsuit
against the board of The Weinstein Company and brothers Harvey and Bob
Weinstein. Schneiderman alleged that top executives at the film company were
aware of Harvey Weinstein’s years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse, but
did nothing.
Last month, Schneiderman praised the reporting of the New
Yorker and The New York Times in the Weinstein matter, which gave rise to a
worldwide conversation about sexual misconduct and accusations against powerful
men in media and entertainment.
"Without the reporting of the @nytimes and the
@newyorker—and the brave women and men who spoke up about the sexual harassment
they endured at the hands of powerful men—there would not be the critical
national reckoning underway," Schneiderman tweeted on April 16. "A
well-deserved honor."
Schneiderman also has been part of several efforts to
push back against some of Trump's actions in the White House, like the
rescinding of protection for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as
children.
Last month, he urged state lawmakers to close a loophole
that he said could be used to fight state charges by anyone who has received a
federal pardon for similar federal charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this
report.
