New York Attorney General and #MeToo supporter Eric Schneiderman has announced his resignation following allegations of assault by four women.
The New Yorker magazine published a report quoting the women, two of them his ex-girlfriends, who accused the 63-year-old of hitting them.
Eric Schneiderman has been a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement against harassment and a fierce opponent of President Donald Trump.
In a statement, Eric Schneiderman, who “strongly contests” the allegations, said: “In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual s**ual activity.
“I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in non-consensual s**, which is a line I would not cross.”
He also said: “While these allegations are unrelated to my professional conduct or the operations of the office, they will effectively prevent me from leading the office’s work at this critical time.”
Eric Schneiderman became attorney general in 2010 and had intended to run for re-election to the post this year.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had called for his resignation, following the reports.
The governor said: “No-one is above the law, including New York’s top legal officer.
“I do not believe it is possible for Eric Schneiderman to continue to serve as attorney general.”
Andrew Cuomo said he would ask a prosecutor to investigate the allegations.
One of the accusers, Michelle Manning Barish tweeted after the allegations were published: “After the most difficult month of my life – I spoke up.
“For my daughter and for all women. I could not remain silent and encourage other women to be brave for me.”
Jennifer Cunningham, Eric Schneiderman’s ex-wife, released a statement on May 7 saying: “I’ve known Eric for nearly 35 years as a husband, father, and friend… I find it impossible to believe these allegations are true.”
Last month, The New Yorker won a joint Pulitzer Prize with The New York Times for its reporting on harassment in Hollywood.
The reports brought down Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who has denied dozens of misconduct allegations.
The state of New York is suing The Weinstein Company, alleging that the studio failed to protect staff from Harvey Weinstein.
Harvey Weinstein, 65, is facing dozens of allegations of abuse, including rape, but denies non-consensual acts.
The lawsuit filed by New York prosecutors alleges Harvey Weinstein abused female employees and made verbal threats to kill staff members.
However, Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer said a “fair investigation” would show that many of the allegations were without merit.
The Weinstein Company’s board of directors said it was “disappointed” by the lawsuit.
On February 11, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said that he had filed the suit against The Weinstein Company, as well as Harvey Weinstein and his brother Robert, who co-founded the studio.
Eric Schneiderman is seeking an unspecified sum to cover damages, plus penalties, for victims of alleged abuse by Harvey Weinstein.
The document alleges that Harvey Weinstein harassed and abused women employed by the studio for years.
It accuses senior executives at the company, including Robert Weinstein, of failing to prevent the mistreatment of staff despite being presented with evidence.
The suit casts doubt over the sale of The Weinstein Company, which has been battling bankruptcy and is in talks with investors.
Eric Schneiderman said his investigation was continuing, but he had brought the suit out of concern that a possible sale would leave alleged victims without adequate compensation, and could benefit “perpetrators or enablers”.
It is reported that businesswoman Maria Contreras-Sweet has led talks to buy the studio for $500 million.
However, after news of the suit emerged, negotiations are now said to be on hold.
According to Variety, investors baulked at the prospect of the lawsuit adding conditions to the sale.
In October 2017, The New York Times published a story detailing decades of allegations of harassment against Harvey Weinstein.
Since then more than 50 women, among them some of the biggest names in Hollywood, have accused him assault, harassment, abuse and rape.
In the wake of the allegations, Harvey Weinstein was sacked by the board of his company.
President-elect Donald Trump has settled three Trump University lawsuits for $25 million, the New York Attorney General has said.
Donald Trump was being sued by former students who paid $35,000 for real estate “secrets” from his “hand-picked” instructors.
He had repeatedly said he would not settle the class-action lawsuits.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the settlement was a “stunning reversal” by Donald Trump and a “major victory” for victims.
However, Donald Trump’s lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said his client was pleased with the outcome, saying “he was willing to sacrifice his personal interests, put this behind him, and move forward”.
Image source Wikipedia
The president-elect faced three fraud lawsuits – which alleged the school misled students and failed to deliver on its promises – in California and New York.
A trial in one of the cases had been due to begin in San Diego on November 28, although Donald Trump’s lawyers had attempted to delay the case.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement: “Today’s $25 million settlement agreement is a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.
“The victims of Trump University have waited years for today’s result and I am pleased that their patience – and persistence – will be rewarded by this $25 million settlement.”
Eric Schneiderman, who Donald Trump has attacked as a “lightweight”, had sought a $40 million payout from Trump over the university, which closed in 2010.
He called Trump University a “fraud from beginning to end” in July, adding that the organization used “false promises to prey on desperate people”.
District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over the two California cases, had been urging both sides to settle out of court.
In June, Donald Trump said: “I will win the Trump University case. I already am, as far as I’m concerned.
“I could settle that case. I could have settled that case. I just choose not to.”
Trump University promised students the opportunity to learn from “hand-picked” teachers, that actually were not chosen by Donald Trump himself.
Eric Schneiderman alleged that the closest students ever got to the real estate mogul was having their photo taken beside a cardboard cutout of him. He also said that Donald Trump personally pocketed about $5 million in the “scheme”.
Donald Trump’s foundation is under investigation over suspected “impropriety”, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.
The attorney-general’s office wanted to ensure the foundation is “complying with the laws that govern charities in New York”, he added.
The Trump Foundation has been hit by a number of damaging media stories.
Donald Trump’s team has dismissed Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, as “a partisan hack.”
The attorney-general has endorsed Donald Trump’s chief opponent, Hillary Clinton, for president.
Image source U.S. Marine Corps
Donald Trump’s campaign spokesman Jason Miller said Eric Schneiderman had “turned a blind eye to the Clinton Foundation for years”, and called the inquiry “another left-wing hit job designed to distract from Crooked Hillary Clinton’s disastrous week”.
“We have been concerned that the Trump Foundation may have engaged in some impropriety from that point of view,” Eric Schneiderman told CNN.
“And we’ve inquired into it, and we’ve had correspondence with them. I didn’t make a big deal out of it or hold a press conference, but we have been looking into the Trump Foundation to make sure it’s complying with the laws that govern charities in New York.”
According to recent reports, Eric Schneiderman’s office has been investigating the Donald J. Trump Foundation since at least June when it formally questioned a donation made to a group backing Republican Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013.
The $25,000 payment was made at a time when Pam Bondi’s office was reportedly considering whether to open a fraud investigation into Trump University.
The fraud investigation never happened, although Pam Bondi denies the decision was influenced by the donation she received.
Donald Trump’s aides have already admitted the donation was a mistake resulting from clerical errors, according to reports.
The DoJ has been asked by Democrats in the House of Representatives to investigate the $25,000 donation to Pam Bondi.
Other newspaper investigations allege the Trump Foundation reported donations that the supposed recipients say they never received, and also spent money on the candidate himself.
Donald Trump has been sued by New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for $40 million, claiming the real estate mogul helped run a phony “Trump University” that falsely promised to make students rich.
Instead, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said that the university steered them into expensive and mostly useless seminars, and even failed to deliver promised apprenticeships.
After the lawsuit was filed on Saturday, Doald Trump shot back that it is false and politically motivated.
Eric Schneiderman says many of the 5,000 students who paid up to $35,000 thought they would at least meet Trump but instead all they got was their picture taken in front of a life-size picture of him.
“Trump University engaged in deception at every stage of consumers’ advancement through costly programs and caused real financial harm,” Eric Schneiderman said.
“Trump University, with Donald Trump’s knowledge and participation, relied on Trump’s name recognition and celebrity status to take advantage of consumers who believed in the Trump brand.”
State Education Department officials told Donald Trump to change the name of his enterprise years ago, saying it lacked a license and didn’t meet the legal definitions of a university.
In 2011 it was renamed the “Trump Entrepreneur Institute”, but it has since been dogged by complaints from consumers and a few civil lawsuits claiming it didn’t fulfill its advertised claims.
New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman claims Donald Trump helped run a phony Trump University that falsely promised to make students rich
Eric Schneiderman’s lawsuit covers complaints dating to 2005 through 2011 and it claims that students paid between $1,495 and $35,000 to learn from the mogul.
He said the three-day seminars failed to teach consumers everything they needed to know about real estate, as the “university” had promised. The Trump University manual tells instructors not to let consumers “think three days will be enough to make them successful”, Eric Schneiderman said.
At the seminars, consumers were told about “Trump Elite” mentorships that cost $10,000 to $35,000 in which students were promised individual instruction until they made their first deal.
Eric Schneiderman said participants were urged to extend the limit on their credit cards for real estate deals, but then used the credit to pay for the Trump Elite programs.
The attorney general said the program also failed to promptly cancel memberships as promised.
The lawsuit added that many of students were unable to land even one real estate deal and were left far worse off than before the lessons, facing thousands of dollars in debt.
But Donld Trump’s attorney accused Eric Schneiderman of trying to extort campaign contributions from the real estate mogul through his investigation.
Attorney Michael D. Cohen told The Associated Press on Saturday that Eric Schneiderman’s lawsuit was filled with falsehoods. He insisted that Donald Trump and his university never defrauded anyone.
“The attorney general has been angry because he felt that Mr. Trump and his various companies should have done much more for him in terms of fundraising,” Michael D. Cohen said.
“This entire investigation is politically motivated and it is a tremendous waste of taxpayers’ money.”
State Board of Elections records show Donald Trump has spent more than $136,000 on New York campaigns since 2010.
He contributed $12,500 to Schneiderman in October 2010, when Eric Schneiderman was running for attorney general, records show.
An outspoken conservative, Donald Trump himself flirted with a presidential run last year.
“Donald Trump will not sit back and be extorted by anyone, including the attorney general,” Michael D. Cohen said.
Eric Schneiderman is suing the program, Donald Trump as the university chairman, and the former president of the university in a case to be handled in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
He accuses them of engaging in persistent fraud, illegal and deceptive conduct and violating federal consumer protection law. The $40 million he seeks is mostly to pay restitution to consumers.
He dismissed Donald Trump’s claim of a political motive.
“The fact that he’s still brave enough to follow the investigation wherever it may lead speaks to Mr. Schneiderman’s character,” Eric Schneiderman spokesman Andrew Friedman told AP.
New York’s Attorney General has launched an investigation into hundreds of complaints of prices being increased in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
Eric Schneiderman said the largest number of complaints concerned increased fuel prices, but other emergency supplies were also affected.
“Price gouging” of essential consumer goods is forbidden under New York law.
More than one million people in New Jersey and New York are still without power a week after the storm hit.
Although fuel supplies are reaching petrol stations across the region, around one-quarter are still closed in metropolitan New York.
At the weekend, long queues of cars and people carrying red canisters built up at petrol stations.
As a result of the storm, 8.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, prompting a surge in demand for generators and hotel rooms. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
Eric Schneiderman said that consumers had contacted him to report “possible gouging for emergency supplies like generators, hotels raising rates due to ‘high demand’, as well as increased prices for food and water”.
New York’s Attorney General has launched an investigation into hundreds of complaints of prices being increased in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy
In a statement, the attorney general said that under New York state law, retailers were not allowed to charge “unconscionably excessive prices” for goods required for personal, family or household purposes when there was an abnormal disruption of the market.
He pledged to do “everything we can to stop to stop unscrupulous individuals from taking advantage of New Yorkers trying to rebuild their lives”.
Transport authorities opened more subway lines on Monday, as more commuters returned to work and one million students returned to school for the first time since the storm.
But platforms were teeming with travelers, trains were overcrowded and limited bus services struggled to meet the demand for services into New York City.
Hundreds of people joined queues early on Monday for the Jersey City ferry service to New York.
As overnight temperatures fell close to freezing, forecasters warned of a new storm approaching the US east coast.
According to the National Weather Service, the coastal storm could reach South and North Carolina late on Tuesday before spreading northwards, strengthening as it moves up towards New Jersey with gusts of up to 50 mph (80 km/h) by Thursday.
“Prepare for more outages,” Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina told Associated Press.
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