New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman led the prosecution in a civil case against Harvey Weinstein for his treatment of women, but the attorney general’s own history of abuse and harassment has recently come to light.
Four women told the New Yorker about their with history of physical abuse from Schneiderman. Michelle Manning Barish and Tanya Selvaratnam told the magazine about nonconsensual physical violence that they experienced while romantically involved with Schneiderman.
Both women made similar accusations. They both told the New Yorker that Schneiderman would hit or choke them in bed without consent, usually when he had been drinking. Both women sought medical attention, but did not report the incidents to the police. Selvaratnam claimed that Schneiderman threatened to follow her and tap her phones if she spoke out.
Selvaratnam and Manning Barish told the New Yorker about Schneiderman’s threats to kill them if they left him, but Schneiderman’s spokesperson said that that never happened. The other women that have come forward have asked to remain anonymous.
Schneiderman’s statement in defense of his actions said, “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.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is ordering a special prosecutor to investigate Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who resigned just hours after accounts of abuse by four women https://t.co/8HNqhIekR4 pic.twitter.com/ZvoUPgFcpS
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 9, 2018
CBS News outlined why these allegations are so shocking and hypocritical. In 2010, Schneiderman pushed another democrat who assaulted his girlfriend to step down. That same year he sponsored legislation alongside domestic violence survivors that made “intentional strangulation and suffocation into unconsciousness a violent felony.”
More recently, Schneiderman was an outspoken advocate against Preisdent Donald Trump, who also has several allegations leveraged against him for his treatment of women, and played a major role in the civil case against Weinstein.
Just three hours after the allegations came to light, Schneiderman stepped down. A special prosecutor is looking into the allegations, according to The New York Times. Barbara D. Underwood, New York’s solicitor general, has taken over the attorney general position until a formal replacement is selected.