The New York attorney general on Wednesday appointed Jacqueline Kelly, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, to lead a criminal investigation into a former Cornell University student’s allegations that she was sexually assaulted at a fraternity party in 2024.
Ms. Kelly served as the inaugural chief of the civil rights unit in the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
In the Cornell investigation, she will oversee a team of lawyers both from the attorney general’s office and from the firm Boies Schiller Flexner, where Ms. Kelly is now a partner, according to a news release.
The team will review evidence and interview witnesses related to what the former Cornell student, now known as Jane Doe, described in a lawsuit as a sexual encounter that began on Oct. 19, 2024, and spiraled into a drug-fueled assault inside a fraternity house by several men.
All of the men have denied wrongdoing, and none have been charged with a crime.
“All New Yorkers deserve a fair and thorough inquiry into the facts of this case,” Ms. Kelly said. “I look forward to lending my years of experience as a federal prosecutor to the Office of the Attorney General as we examine all available evidence.”
Ms. James’s appointment of Ms. Kelly follows a weekslong search by the attorney general for a lawyer who would take on a case that has convulsed Cornell’s campus in Ithaca, N.Y., and plunged the Ivy League institution into crisis.
In making the appointment, Ms. James has selected a veteran litigator who has overseen high-profile sex crimes prosecutions, including by leading the team that won the conviction of the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs of prostitution-related offenses last year. But she has also enlisted the aid of a firm with a complicated history of involvement in other such cases.
In a news release, Ms. James said she is confident that Ms. Kelly will lead a “fair and comprehensive investigation.”
Although lawyers from Boies Schiller Flexner have represented victims of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, one of its founding partners, David Boies, was also close to the disgraced Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein was accused in 2017 by multiple women of abusing his power to sexually assault them, and he was later convicted sex crimes in New York and California.
Before articles appeared in The New York Times detailing some of the allegations against Mr. Weinstein, Mr. Boies personally signed a contract with a private intelligence firm that was hired to quash the articles about Mr. Weinstein.
A representative of Boies Schiller Flexner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Kelly did not join the firm until July 2025.
In the Cornell case, the former student’s allegations were detailed in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan on Sept. 16. The suit unleashed a flood of outrage on social media and college campuses over the handling of her claims, both by the university and the Tompkins County district attorney, Matthew Van Houten.
Ms. Kelly’s appointment also comes amid criticism of Ms. James, who has been accused of showing bias in describing the case on social media.
On Sept. 28, the same day that Mr. Van Houten issued a statement saying he would reopen a criminal inquiry into the former student’s allegations, Ms. James posted on social media that what Jane Doe “has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable.”
“I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers,” Ms. James wrote at the time. “To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.”
Later that week, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had “lost faith” in Mr. Van Houten, who had initially declined to pursue a criminal case in response to Jane Does’s earlier complaint. In the same statement, Ms. Hochul said she had appointed Ms. James as special prosecutor to oversee a new investigation into the case.
After Ms. James was appointed, her office said it had narrowed the search for outside counsel to support the investigation.
But in two separate filings in the weeks since, lawyers for men accused by Jane Doe have argued that Ms. James should be removed from the investigation and that a separate special prosecutor should be appointed. A hearing in one of those matters was held in Sullivan County Supreme Court last week, where lawyers for Ms. James defended her against one of the motions. A judge has yet to make a ruling on the request to remove Ms. James.
Ms. Kelly’s appointment would offer Ms. James’s office, which does not typically prosecute sex crimes, added experience to the Cornell investigation.
After getting a bachelor’s degree from Cornell and a law degree from Columbia University, Ms. Kelly began her legal career at an international law firm. She then clerked for federal judges in Manhattan and New Jersey.
During her time as a federal prosecutor, Ms. Kelly oversaw cases spanning from fraud and racketeering to human trafficking.
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