U.S. prosecutors reopened an investigation on Monday (September 28, 2026) into an alleged gang rape at Cornell University following claims the elite college failed to properly punish the men involved.
He also rejected a claim, made in the civil lawsuit, that the suspects were offered the opportunity to write essays to mitigate their conduct. The alleged victim said in a civil lawsuit this month she was drugged with ketamine, assaulted and raped in 2024 by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, a social club for male students. The 101-page civil lawsuit filed in New York gives graphic details on the alleged assault of the woman, whose identity is being protected.
Because the victim’s testimony did not establish a lack of consent, but had now decided to do so in light of her latest allegations, he said his office chose in 2024 not to prosecute.
“Jane Doe, that survivor, lost her education because you can’t stay in school when something like that happens to you,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday.
British actor Florence Pugh has voiced her anger about the case, saying she felt “uneasy and sick and anxious” after hearing about it.
