Former federal prosecutor Jacqueline Kelly to lead reopened investigation into alleged Cornell gang rape

A reopened criminal investigation into gang rape allegations at Cornell University will be led by Jacqueline Kelly, a Cornell alumna and partner at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Wednesday. Kelly, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor, oversaw high-profile sex crimes cases against music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and fashion executive Peter Nygård.

The investigation was spurred by a former student’s allegations in a September lawsuit that several men raped her at a fraternity party in October 2024. The allegations have not been proven in court. The former student, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, alleged that some of the men pressured her into using ketamine and marijuana and that she drank alcohol that left her too intoxicated to consent. She said that a few weeks later she made reports to campus police and the university’s Title IX office.

Kelly and a team of lawyers and investigators from her firm and the attorney general’s office will gather evidence, interview witnesses, review investigative records and reports, and analyze the facts and applicable law, James said. They will report to James, whom Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed last month as a special prosecutor overseeing the Cornell probe. James, a Democrat, made the announcement a day after winning election to a third term.

Separately, two men named as defendants in the former student’s lawsuit have asked that the attorney general be removed from the investigation. They argue that James is biased because of a social media post she made before her appointment that expressed support for the accuser. A judge has yet to rule.

In a statement, James described Kelly as “a seasoned prosecutor who has overseen numerous cases from investigation through trial,” and said she was confident Kelly “will lead a fair and comprehensive investigation.” Kelly, a Columbia Law School graduate, spent nearly a decade in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, where she led the civil rights unit in the office’s criminal division and oversaw prosecutions of sex crimes and hate crimes. She left last year to join Boies Schiller Flexner and will remain at the firm while she conducts the Cornell investigation. “All New Yorkers deserve a fair and thorough inquiry into the facts of this case,” she said (Proverbs 18:17 bears on weighing evidence carefully before judgment is rendered).

Hochul appointed James on Oct. 1, saying she had lost faith in the local prosecutor, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who declined to bring charges in 2024. Van Houten said he would restart the investigation after the lawsuit was filed, but a lawyer for the accuser said the district attorney was preparing to bring the matter to a grand jury within two weeks. The case has also prompted scrutiny of Cornell itself. Last month the university hired former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review how the school investigates sexual assault and sexual harassment, how its disciplinary process works, and how campus police respond.

James has said her investigation will take months.

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