Eric Schneiderman, Democratic NY attorney general, accused of physical violence by 4 women
New York AG Eric Schneiderman accused of physical abuse
Four women have accused the state attorney general of abuse, including harassment, physical abuse, and death threats.
Four women have come forward to accuse New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of physical abuse and controlling behavior during romantic relationships or encounters, The New Yorker reported in a bombshell exposé co-written by Ronan Farrow and published Monday night.
Schneiderman, long a pillar of New York's Democratic establishment, has cast himself as a supporter of the #MeToo movement after Farrow uncovered a long list of rape and sexual harassment accusations against the now-disgraced Hollywood titan Harvey Weinstein.
WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS BELOW
Two of the politician's accusers, Michelle Manning Barish and Tanya Selvaratnam, spoke to the magazine on the record to document claims that Schneiderman nonconsensually hit and choked them. Two other women made similar accusations against him, but declined to be identified.
After the story was published Monday night, Manning Barish tweeted: "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."
Schneiderman, a former New York state senator who was elected state attorney general in 2010, issued a statement to the magazine saying: "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." He later posted the same statement on his official Twitter account and a representative emailed the same statement when contacted for comment by Fox News.
Manning Barish told the magazine that she dated Schneiderman, now 63, between the summer of 2013 and New Year's Day 2015. According to her account, Schneiderman started abusing her weeks after their relationship became physical. Though she reconciled with him after an initial incident, Manning Barish said that Schneiderman often would slap her during sex without her consent and made critical comments about her appearance.
According to the article, Manning Barish said Schneiderman "would be 'shaking me and grabbing my face' while demanding that she repeat such things as 'I'm a little wh---.'" On another occasion, Manning Barish says that Schneiderman told her "If you ever left me, I'd kill you."
Manning Barish also described Schneiderman as a heavy drinker who often asked to to refill her Xanax prescription so that he could take "about half" the pills for himself.
Selvaratnam told the New Yorker she was involved with Schneiderman between the summer of 2016 and the fall of 2017. She said that he started physically abusing her in bed and asking her to find another woman for a threesome. Schneiderman also asked her to "call him Master, and he’d slap me until I did."
"[H]e started calling me his 'brown slave' and demanding that I repeat that I was 'his property,'" Selvaratnam told the magazine.
In February, Schneiderman filed a civil rights lawsuit against the board of The Weinstein Company and brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Schneiderman alleged that top executives at the film company were aware of Harvey Weinstein’s years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse, but did nothing.
Last month, Schneiderman praised the reporting of the New Yorker and The New York Times in the Weinstein matter, which gave rise to a worldwide conversation about sexual misconduct and accusations against powerful men in media and entertainment.
"Without the reporting of the @nytimes and the @newyorker—and the brave women and men who spoke up about the sexual harassment they endured at the hands of powerful men—there would not be the critical national reckoning underway," Schneiderman tweeted on April 16. "A well-deserved honor."
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