Cornell names former acting U.S. attorney general to review rape case

Former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates has been tapped to lead an independent investigation into how Cornell University handled the rape allegations of a former student. Here, Yates speaks at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., in 2017. Steven Senne/AP hide caption

Cornell University named Sally Yates, a former acting U.S. attorney general and career federal prosecutor, as head of an independent internal review into how the school handled a former student's rape allegations.

The announcement comes as the school continues to face outrage on campus and nationally after a former student filed a civil lawsuit alleging she was drugged and gang raped in 2024. The woman, identified in the suit as Jane Doe, also alleged failings by the school in how it handled her complaint and the aftermath.

Yates, a partner at King & Spalding who served as the U.S. deputy attorney general under President Barack Obama, was picked by the newly formed Special Committee of the Cornell University Board of Trustees. She will also examine the school's policies related to how it "prevents and responds to sexual harassment, sexual assault and related misconduct on campus," the school announced Tuesday .

"Sally Yates brings extraordinary experience, independence and judgment to this work," said Anne Meinig Smalling, chair of the special committee, in the school's announcement. "The questions raised by the Jane Doe matter warrant a rigorous examination of Cornell's response to that case, but our responsibility is broader. We have asked Ms. Yates and her team to examine Cornell's overall approach to preventing and responding to sexual misconduct, identify where we are doing things well and where we can do better, and recommend changes that will help make our community safer."

Doe filed her lawsuit in mid-September. In it, Doe alleges that seven men drugged and assaulted her for several hours in October 2024 at their Chi Phi fraternity house on campus. No criminal charges were ever filed against the men. Those named in the lawsuit have denied all wrongdoing. Cornell University is also named as a defendant in Doe's suit.

The university has maintained that Cornell University Police investigated the case thoroughly and that the school held its own Title IX investigation, which resulted in suspensions and expulsions.

But in the weeks that have followed the lawsuit's filing, students have protested the university's response to the case. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed state Attorney General Letitia James to lead a criminal investigation into the rape case, after sharp criticism of its handling by campus police and the local prosecutor, Matthew Van Houten. The case also has renewed national conversations over consent and sexual assault on college campuses.