Sally Yates, whose career in the Justice Department spanned about three decades, will lead an independent review on how Cornell University responds to sexual harassment, assault and misconduct on campus, the university announced Tuesday.
The decision comes in the wake of national outrage over a former Cornell student’s allegation last month that she was gang-raped and plied with drugs at a fraternity in 2024.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is also investigating the allegation. A spokesperson said staff members from the attorney general’s office have “spoken with the Tompkins County District Attorney, Jane Doe’s attorney, and several candidates for outside counsel to support the investigation.”
The independent probe headed by Yates will look into how the university responded to those allegations and whether the school followed its policies and procedures, according to the university.
More broadly, the review will examine Cornell’s policies and practices spanning from prevention to response. It will include how reports are investigated, how disciplinary decisions are handled and how students are supported, the university said. The investigation will also look into the role and response of campus police, and its coordination with other law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. Yates did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Sally Yates brings extraordinary experience, independence and judgment to this work,” Anne Meinig Smalling, the chair of the university’s Special Committee of the Cornell University Board of Trustees, said in a statement.
An attorney for one of the Chi Phi members who was accused of sexual assault, Gillio Lopes, said they welcome the independent investigation.
“Sally Yates has tremendous experience as a prosecutor and investigator, and she and her team should have access to the full record and the freedom to follow the facts wherever they lead,” attorney Andrew Miltenberg said.
Lopes denies sexually assaulting the former student and disagreed with the Title IX finding, he said. Attorneys for several of the other men have denied wrongdoing or disputed Doe’s account.
Yates is a longtime federal prosecutor who became known in 2017 for refusing to enforce President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers to the U.S. from predominantly Muslim countries. Currently a partner at the law firm King & Spalding, she also previously investigated allegations of abuse and misconduct at U.S. Soccer.
Yates was named the deputy U.S. attorney general, the second-highest-ranking in the Justice Department, with bipartisan support in 2015. During that tenure under former President Barack Obama, Yates wrote a memo directing prosecutors to focus on individual wrongdoers in corporate cases. The memo followed the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, in which corporations were forced to pay fines but many individual executives were not prosecuted.
Yates was also the acting U.S. attorney general for 10 days in 2017 before she was fired for refusing to defend Trump’s travel ban. Trump’s order created an early flashpoint of protest against his aggressive immigration policies.
The White House said at the time that Yates had “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.” The statement added that “Ms. Yates is an Obama Administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.”
More coverage
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- Tips came in just minutes after Cornell alerted students to an alleged sex assault at a frat house
- ‘I am Jane Doe’: Cornell case spurs women to share their experiences of sexual assault on campus
Yates wrote an op-ed in The New York Times in July 2017, after her firing, writing that Trump was “attempting to dismantle the rule of law, destroy the time-honored independence of the Justice Department, and undermine the career men and women who are devoted to seeking justice day in and day out, regardless of which political party is in power.”
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“If we are not careful, when we wake up from the Trump presidency, our justice system may be broken beyond recognition,” she wrote.
FOR SUBSCRIBERS‘Still in this very long day that started on Oct. 7th’
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Yates began her career in the DOJ in 1989 at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, where she was an assistant U.S. attorney. That office covers 46 counties and includes Atlanta. In 2010, Obama appointed her to lead the office, making her the first woman to do so.
She has also previously led investigations into sexual misconduct.
In 2022, Yates led an independent probe into U.S. Soccer that resulted in a damning report.
“Our investigation over the past year has revealed a league in which abuse was systematic. Verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct occurred at multiple teams, was perpetrated by several coaches and affected many players,” she said at the time.
U.S. Soccer said that the findings were “heartbreaking and deeply troubling” and that it would work to thoroughly address the recommendations.
“The abuse described is inexcusable and has no place on any playing field, in any training facility or workplace,” U.S. Soccer President and former U.S. Women’s National Team member Cindy Parlow Cone said at the time.
In Cornell’s announcement on Monday, it said that Yates and her team have been asked to “examine Cornell’s overall approach to preventing and responding to sexual misconduct, identify where we are doing things well and where we can do better, and recommend changes that will help make our community safer.”
The university said it would share the results of the review, along with any recommendations, with the Cornell community.
