NEWS NOW| COLOMBO – New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has resigned following allegations of assault by 4 women.
The New Yorker magazine published a report quoting the women, two of them ex-girlfriends, who accused Schneiderman, 63, of hitting them.
Schneiderman has been a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and a fierce opponent of President Donald Trump.
In a statement, Schneiderman said he “strongly contests” the allegations.”In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity,” the statement says. “I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in non-consensual sex, which is a line I would not cross.”
Schneiderman said: “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.”
The Sri Lankan born author, Tanya Selvaratnan said Schneiderman warned her he could have her followed and phone-tapped and said he would kill her if she broke up with him, all of which he denies.
She says Schneiderman called her “brown slave”, adding: “Sometimes, he’d tell me to call him Master, and he’d slap me until I did.”
Selvaratnam is the author of “The Big Lie: Motherhood, Feminism, and the Reality of the Biological Clock,” which explores infertility issues; she is also an actor and a film producer, as well as a supporter of feminist and progressive social causes.
She, too, is divorced. In 2016, she attended the Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia, where Schneiderman introduced himself to her. She says that their first encounter felt “like kismet.”
