New York attorney general’s reputation went from ‘wouldn’t get a bawdy joke’ to cad overnight

ALBANY, N.Y. — To many in Albany, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman seemed staid and somewhat standoffish, almost to the point of boring: a teetotaler who favored coffee shops over bars, liked yoga and health food and preferred high-minded intellectual and legal debate to the hand-to-hand combat of New York's political arena.

But that carefully cultivated image of a caring, progressive Renaissance man came crashing down Monday night after the publication of an expose by The New Yorker, detailing allegations of a sordid and stomach-turning double life, including Schneiderman's physical and psychological abuse of four women with whom he had been romantically involved. The attorney general's behavior, the article said, had been exacerbated by alcohol abuse and punctuated by insults of the very liberal voters and activists who had held him up as a champion willing to deliver a fearless counterpunch to President Donald Trump.

The article ricocheted around the New York and national political scene at a quark's pace, leading to immediate calls for Schneiderman's resignation from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, and other officials, and his almost-as-speedy, almost-grudging acceptance of his political fate.

"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," Schneiderman said, in a statement released just before 10 p.m. Monday. He gave himself one day to clear out his desk — his tenure will expire at end of business Tuesday, per his statement — though he was not seen at his office in Lower Manhattan, where television cameras were positioned outside, as they were near his apartment on the Upper West Side.

Schneiderman has denied assaulting anyone or engaging in nonconsensual sex.

[New York's attorney general resigns after four women accuse him of physical abuse]

The resignation brought an abrupt end to two terms in office and two decades in public service marked with the kind of accomplishments that make Democratic leaders salivate, including battling Trump, whom he had sued successfully over fraud involving Trump University — winning $25 million shortly after the 2016 election — and more recently targeting serial sexual abusers like Harvey Weinstein, suing the Hollywood mogul and firmly embracing the #MeToo movement.

That hypocrisy — professing to defend women while secretly, according to The New Yorker article, beating them — seemed particularly rank.

"It's so devastating on so many levels because he did great things in office, as a state senator, as attorney general," said Linda Rosenthal, a Democratic assemblywoman from the Upper West Side, who has known Schneiderman since before his political career began. "Yet behind the scenes, he treated women like garbage."

Schneiderman, 63, had widely been considered a future contender for governor in New York, a solidly blue state where Cuomo is also said to harbor higher ambitions. Schneiderman's campaign accounts were substantial, with more than $8.5 million in the bank, an increasingly high profile burnished by his long battles with Trump and appearances on national talk shows.

The shock of the allegations was shared inside the attorney general's office itself, which has a workforce of about 1,800 people, including 700 lawyers. "There were no allegations against him made in the office," said Amy Spitanick, a spokeswoman for the attorney general. "And we were not aware of any allegations until we got press calls."

Those calls apparently began to land Monday morning, after several weeks of rumors — in Albany and elsewhere — about a possible investigation into Schneiderman's personal life and behavior. The graphic details of the women's stories seemed even more stark considering the enlightened-man elements of his biography and his standing on the Upper West Side, the city's traditional bastion of its most liberal-minded voters. A campaign advertisement from his successful run for attorney general in 2010, when he was a state senator, depicted him as constantly interrupted by complimentary constituents on a sunny street.

But Schneiderman, who is divorced and has a grown daughter, had also apparently used his position as an excuse to drink heavily, according to an account of one of the women he allegedly physically abused, Michelle Manning Barish. "I would come over for dinner. An already half-empty bottle of red wine would be on the counter. He had had a head start. 'Very stressful day,' he would say," Manning Barish told The New Yorker. In another episode, the attorney general is depicted as a man consumed by his own hubris, telling Manning Barish, "I am the law." There had been tabloid stories describing Schneiderman's alleged drug use — which had also been passed around by Trump. His office denied the accounts, though The New Yorker article said Schneiderman had misused Xanax.

On Tuesday, Schneiderman's fellow Democrats in Albany were expressing shock at the details, citing a public persona that was far more subdued, almost to the point of being restrained. "He seemed beyond strait-laced," said Assemblyman Sean Ryan, a Democrat from Buffalo. "The kind of guy who wouldn't get a bawdy joke."

Schneiderman's avidity for a healthy lifestyle was well-known, said Rosenthal, who noted that she had co-sponsored a bill of his in 2009 that protected yoga studios from certain regulations.

Assemblyman Daniel J. O'Donnell, whom Schneiderman defeated in the 1998 primary for state Senate, his first elected position in Albany, also said he had never seen the attorney general drink, but had been struck by a certain professional arrogance, perhaps born of his pedigree: Amherst College, Harvard Law and a father, Irwin Schneiderman, who was a prominent corporate lawyer. "He had a tendency to talk down to people," O'Donnell said. "And didn't know he was doing it."

Former staffers said Schneiderman could be detached from the minutiae of the office and rarely spoiled for political fights. He sometimes complained of insomnia and was known to come into the office later than most employees; he sometimes mentioned taking sleep aids.

O'Donnell said the accusations were "horrifying" and didn't "comport with the person I interacted with," though he had sometimes been curious about Schneiderman's succession of girlfriends. "I kind of always wondered why was that," he said. "Here's a handsome wealthy guy with a beautiful apartment on West End Avenue, and all these beautiful women. And no one is choosing to stay. But you don't ask."

Schneiderman's reputation for propriety was so entrenched in Albany that he was meant to be lampooned at a legislative variety show Monday night — before the story broke — for being "so lame" and unscathed by the scandals that have often waylaid Albany politicians. After the magazine article was published, that musical number was altered, exchanging Schneiderman's name for Chuck Schumer's, the Democratic senator from New York.