Politics

Schneiderman Accuser Says The Abuse Got Worse After Trump Won The Election

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Rachel Stoltzfoos Staff Reporter
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One of the women who accused former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of physical and verbal abuse said it got worse after President Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election.

Because of what his quick rise as a prominent anti-Trumper did to his ego, Tanya Selvaratnam said Trump’s win exacerbated Schneiderman’s abusive tendencies. The Washington Post included her remarks in a report on her life since coming forward with the accusations last year. She accused Schneiderman of verbally demeaning her and physically abusing her during sex.

Selvaratnam told The Washington Post she was disillusioned by the disconnect she saw between Schneiderman’s public image as a #MeToo champion — “People would literally be coming up to him and saying: Save us” — and his treatment of her in private. And that compounded the “trauma of the Trump era” for her. (RELATED: Schneiderman At Pro-Choice Event: We Are Standing Up Against Violence)

From The Washington Post:

“The abuse seemed to worsen after Donald Trump was elected, she says, as Schneiderman began burnishing his reputation as one of the president-elect’s primary antagonists. ‘I was seeing behind the scenes that it was kind of smoke and mirrors, his ability to actually take down the president,’ she recalls. ‘I was disillusioned on many levels — with him as a person and as a politician.’ The trauma of the Trump era felt both personal and political. ‘People would literally be coming up to him and saying: Save us,‘ she says. ‘I witnessed this time and time again. In the back of my mind, I’d think, Do they have any idea what he does to me at home?’

A few weeks later, she went with a friend to his apartment to pick up her things. Selvaratnam still thought she was alone in having suffered from his abuse, and that the pressures of the Trump win had been, in part, to blame. But the friend who escorted her, Jennifer Gonnerman, a staff writer at the New Yorker, said she bet there were other women with similar experiences.”

Selvaratnam said she doesn’t regret coming forward, and is working on a book to help other victims of abuse. Schneiderman resigned in May 2018, just hours after she and three other women detailed the allegations of abuse in a report by The New Yorker. He initially denied the allegations, but later apologized after prosecutors decided not to press charges.