Would you also be in favor of that for your client, given what we just talked about with the leaks and the scrutiny around this case publicly?

We're taking no position on the gag order.

I think there are serious First Amendment issues.

I think that so much of this has already been laid out in public view by first Jane Doe's lawyer, who I think, and I've said this before, I think did a masterful job at manipulating public sentiment before the case was served or the complaint was served on everybody.

And so much of it is out there and so much of it is not out there that I don't know how now you can put a gag order on anything, I think that the court should fashion some sort of order that allows for transparency, allows for First Amendment rights, and also restrains the attorneys and parties from making statements that are misleading, may affect a jury in the future, may make disputed facts seem like they're agreed upon, things like that.

Do you have any idea or insight into why this is happening now, why the case is being reopened, why the accusations are being made at this point in time?

I can only guess that it has something to do with New York state politics.

This is a cultural battle that I've been part of before, back in 2015 with Columbia and the Mattress case, in which I represented the young man.

It was obvious that she was drunk," if nothing else?

I, I can speak to the evidence, and the evidence points to, including contemporaneous statements by Jane Doe, that she was fully able to consent and fully coherent, and there was nothing about her affect physically or otherwise that would have suggested that she was, uh, not capable of understanding and consenting to what was going on.

So I can't speak for what happened before him.

He can't speak for what happened before him or what happened after he was in the room.

But as for his particular time with her, he continues to believe that, uh, the evidence is clear.

Now, I think that's separate from him feeling as a human being empathy over the entire situation.

The fact that this young lady clearly had something traumatic happen to her, whether that is what happened in actuality or that's her perception, that has to be treated with dignity and respect, and I think for that I can tell you as a parent I feel sad for the young people involved in this case, and I think that, uh, he feels that it's unfortunate that someone has undergone such an cir- set of circumstances.

Do you feel that's the right response given what's happened?

Uh, I mean, he's not here to, to defend himself, but I'm sure he would say that he is fighting a civil case, and I guess he would point out too that his client is the alleged victim in all this.

Her allegations are very, very serious, and she deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

It's disappointing to hear that she has, uh, been the target of either doxing or derision or otherwise threatened, and I would hope none of the young people go through that.

Part of the difficulty here is that this story has become one of, uh, a, an alleged victim of a sexual assault and seven young men, and it's become the battleground for a national debate on, um, uh, culture wars within in ... and within the United States and perhaps beyond the United States.

And I think everyone has forgotten that there are the lives of eight young people involved, each of whom are entitled to, um, have their privacy respected and their dignity respected.

It's not good for any of them.

I, I don't think any of these young people will ever outrun these allegations, this, this event, this, uh, spectacle, if you will.

Uh, i- is part of the problem also, uh, as some would see it, a, a, a failure o- of the initial police, uh, investigation and a failure to prosecute this in the, in the criminal courts, uh, quickly, which, which would then would have seen the facts laid out?

I'm standing up for her right to come forward and, and make and issue a, a- and issue a complaint about this."

It, it, it could be.

However, by virtue of what she said before she was appointed special prosecutor, there will be a question, e- either in people's minds, in my mind, in a court's mind, uh, there will be continuing questions over her, uh, ability to look at everything through a fair and neutral lens, and we can get rid of that.

Uh, a voluntary recusal is a very clean matter and, and it would make public confidence in the investigation critically important.

There's nothing wrong with compassion towards someone who's suffered and/or is alleged to have suffered sexual assaults.

The question is when that, the person making those statements, uh, becomes responsible for determining what actually occurred.

What do you think about that?

Well, look, that's the danger in a case like this in calling someone a victim, in, uh, denominating the a- the alleged, uh, respondents as the Cornell Seven, labeling them that way.