Former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is now under investigation

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office opened an investigation Tuesday into former New York District Attorney Eric Schneiderman, an office spokesperson confirmed to VICE News. The investigation began just one day after the New Yorker published a report saying Schneiderman physically abused a woman and potentially drove drunk while in the Hamptons, which is in New York’s Suffolk County.

In total, four women have so far accused Schneiderman of physical abuse, alleging that he slapped, choked, and at times threatened them. Schneiderman has already tendered his resignation over the allegations.

“In the last several hours, serious allegations, which I strongly contest, have been made against me,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “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.”

One woman, a lawyer who remained unnamed in the New Yorker article, said that she encountered Schneiderman at a party in the Hamptons in the summer of 2016. The pair went to a house where Schneiderman was staying and began to make out, according to the New Yorker. But after Schneiderman reportedly began making comments about the woman, including calling her a “dirty little slut” and “my whore,” the woman pulled away.

That’s when, the woman said, Schneiderman slapped her across the face. Twice.

“I couldn’t believe it,” the woman told the New Yorker. “For a split second, I was scared.”

After the woman demanded to leave, Schneiderman drove the woman home, when “it quickly became apparent how intoxicated he was,” the New Yorker reported. (Schneiderman’s spokesperson told the New Yorker that this allegation was “untrue.”) The woman later sent friends a photo of the handprint Schneiderman’s alleged slap left on her face; in a photo taken two days later and viewed by the New Yorker, the mark is reportedly still visible.

A spokesperson for Schneiderman declined to comment on the investigation on Tuesday evening. In a statement to the New Yorker, Schneiderman denied that he’d ever assaulted anyone or engaged in non-consensual sex.

“In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity,” he told the magazine.

Cover image via Getty