Four women have come forward and accused Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of sexual harassment and abuse, claiming he would get drunk and attack them during sex — striking and choking them without their permission.
Two of the women described on the record to the New Yorker the violence they faced at the hands of the AG, who has become one of the leading voices against sexual misconduct in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
“You cannot be a champion of women when you are hitting them and choking them in bed, and saying to them, ‘You’re a f–ing whore,’” explained one of the women, Manning Barish.
“His hypocrisy is epic,” she said. “He’s fooled so many people.”
Two other women, who didn’t speak to the magazine, claim they’ve also been brutalized by Schneiderman in bed — but they’re too afraid to come forward.
One spoke to fellow accusers Barish and Tanya Selbaratnam about what she allegedly endured during her romantic relationship with him. The New Yorker said Monday in its report that they had “independently vetted the accounts that they gave of her allegations.”
The other — an attorney from New York — sent photos of injuries she allegedly sustained at the hands of Schneiderman.
Selvaratnam insisted that the alleged abuse be labeled as “assault” — saying it resembled something you’d see Schneiderman condemning in court.
She described the AG, who is currently suing the Weinstein Co., as a “a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” figure who made her “feel sick” as one of the leading proponents of the #MeToo movement.
“This is a man who has staked his entire career, his personal narrative, on being a champion for women publicly. But he abuses them privately,” Selvaratnam said. “He needs to be called out.”
Recounting what Schneiderman allegedly did to them, the women laid out a slew of sickening allegations against the 63-year-old — including how he called them “whores” and would randomly hit them out of nowhere if they ever talked back.
Describing one alleged incident inside his Upper West Side apartment, Barish said: “All of a sudden, he just slapped me, open handed and with great force, across the face, landing the blow directly onto my ear…It was horrendous. It just came out of nowhere.”
Schneiderman allegedly slapped her so hard, it caused a ringing in Barish’s ear.
“I lost my balance and fell backward onto the bed,” she said. “I sprang up, but at this point there was very little room between the bed and him. I got up to try to shove him back, or take a swing, and he pushed me back down.He then used his body weight to hold me down, and he began to choke me. The choking was very hard. It was really bad. I kicked. In every fibre, I felt I was being beaten by a man.”
While the accusations against Schneiderman are disturbing, the women chose not to go to the police.
“Now that I know it’s part of a pattern, I think, God, I should have reported it,” explained the unnamed lawyer. “But, back then, I believed that it was a one-time incident. And I thought, He’s a good attorney general, he’s doing good things. I didn’t want to jeopardize that.”
In response to the allegations, Schneiderman said: “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.”