'Not doing well', 'under siege': Cornell rape accuser hunted online as New York governor admits the system failed her

Ithaca, New York — The woman who accuses Cornell University fraternity members of drugging and gang-raping her is now being hunted a second time, this time by the internet. Her lawyer told CNN on Friday that his client, who identifies by the pseudonym Jane Doe, is "not doing well" and feels "under siege" as online mobs attempt to uncover her identity amid the national uproar over her case. Thomas Giuffra, the lawyer, said he believes "a cover-up was going on" in order to protect the university and its reputation. He added that he had "a real issue" with the district attorney, accusing him of trying to "throw" his client "under the bus". The intervention of New York's governor has now blown the case wide open. The governor said the system had "failed" the woman and announced she was appointing the state's attorney general as special prosecutor, after losing faith in the ability of the local Tompkins County district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, to oversee the case. Van Houten had decided not to prosecute in 2024; he has since reopened the investigation. Jane Doe, a former Cornell student, filed a civil lawsuit in September alleging she was drugged and repeatedly raped over the course of seven hours at a fraternity in 2024, when she was 20. The case has sparked national outrage, roiled the campus, and raised hard questions about why no criminal case was brought. The governor also criticised what she called "a gap in state law" that makes it very difficult to bring charges relating to accusations of sexual crimes when the alleged victim was voluntarily intoxicated. "If someone is too intoxicated to consent, it should not matter whether they chose to use drugs or alcohol. Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang-rape. Period," she said, vowing to push legislation to update the law. On Friday, Cornell University said it supported the governor's actions, including the effort to pass legislation to update the relevant law. "We fully support the appointment of a special prosecutor and efforts to change New York State's rape law and are committed to an independent external review of all aspects of how Cornell has handled this case," a spokesperson said. The pattern is a familiar one to anyone who has watched campus sexual-violence cases: the survivor files a complaint, the institution protects its reputation, the prosecutor declines, and when she speaks publicly, the internet turns its weapons on her. New York's governor has now said the quiet part out loud — the system failed. Whether the special prosecutor and the promised law change deliver anything more than words is the question the coming months will answer.