MANHATTAN (NY)
NBC Chicago
May 8, 2018
By Melissa Russo, Jonathan Dienst and Andrew Siff
The women accusing Eric Schneiderman said seeing him speak out on sexual misconduct issues was part of the impetus in them coming forward
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said early Tuesday it had opened an investigation into the allegations of physical abuse four women made against Eric Schneiderman, accusations that prompted a resignation from the state attorney general within hours of publication in an expose by The New Yorker.
A spokesman for Cy Vance confirmed the investigation in an early morning statement, but provided no further detail.
Schneiderman, who had been running for re-election and had taken on high-profile roles as a women’s issues advocate, said in a statement late Monday he contested the women’s accounts, but “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.”
He said he would resign at the close of business on Tuesday. Barbara Underwood will step in as acting attorney general. She has been the state’s Solitictor General since 2007. Before that she served as Chief Assistant to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. She has also worked in the Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn district attorney offices. She got an undergraduate degree from Harvard and law degree from Georgetown.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.