WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Oct 2 castigated Letitia James, the New York attorney general investigating the Cornell University sex assault case, as a “corrupt person”, and said that anyone she is scrutinising probably would not get “a fair shake”.

A day earlier, before James was put in charge of the investigation, Trump said he did not know much about the case. “Cornell is a fine school, and I’m sure they’ll do what’s right,” he told reporters.

His comments on Oct 2 were in response to a question about James’ involvement in the inquiry. Trump has a fraught history with her. In 2022, while running for re-election, James, a Democrat, brought a fraud case against him and his family.

“I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at, because they won’t get a fair shake,” Trump said, when asked about the decision by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, to appoint James as a special prosecutor in the case. “Letitia James is a corrupt person.”

James’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Oct 2.

A woman referred to in court documents as Jane Doe has sued Cornell over an alleged sexual assault at a fraternity in 2024. Prosecutors re-opened the case this week, and James was appointed to investigate it Friday.

For Trump, James’ involvement was enough to call the entire investigation into question. En route to a rally in Alabama, Trump jumped on social media and sent another missive using an insulting nickname for James: “Why would the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, appoint a Corrupt Prosecutor, Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James, to represent the State in the highly controversial Cornell University rape case?”

James has become a major political target of Trump’s second-term retribution campaign, anim...