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The Situation Room

Reports Say, Jane Doe Discussed Rape With Cornell Police; Netanyahu Says, Pilot May Have Attempted to Hijack and Crash Jet En Route to Tel Aviv. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 30, 2026 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, what happened that night at Cornell University? New details about what Jane Doe told police two years ago. My late reporting is straight ahead, and the documents I just obtained before the show.

Plus, the breaking details about a violent midair incident between pilots on an Israel-bound flight. What officials know at this hour.

And flash flood emergency. Heavy rains force communities to evacuate in New Mexico as dams fill to the brim.

And new changes coming to the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is looking to make cuts to senior officers. We'll discuss with New York Senator and Armed Services Committee member Kirsten Gillibrand.

Well, welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer is off, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we start with that breaking news and reports of Jane Doe's comments to Cornell police alleging she was drugged and raped inside a fraternity house in 2024, which now raising new questions about how the investigation was handled. CNN affiliate WCBS obtained a transcript of Jane Doe's interview with Cornell police on November 14th and the 15th in 2024, and I obtained a six-page written statement signed by Jane Doe to Cornell weeks after the alleged rape.

According to the documents, Jane Doe told Cornell police she was heavily intoxicated. In a transcript, Jane Doe told -- reportedly told police she was, quote, okay -- pretty okay with the initial sexual activity, but did not consent to what occurred later in the night. In her written statement, Jane Doe said she consented to some sexual acts, but refused others, including a foursome proposed by a fraternity brother.

She also described thinking if she passed out, then the men could be charged with, quote, rape if they had sex with her. The only mention of rape, by the way, was in her written statement.

Now, in the statement, Jane Doe also reportedly described being physically hit according to transcripts with Cornell police. No criminal charges were brought afterward. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten tells CNN, quote, I will be looking into whether the reports of her initial comments are true and the specific circumstances of this allegation. I was not provided the transcript, and the specific statement that has been attributed to Jane Doe was not included in the written statement that I received from Cornell P.D. I will be investigating this fully and determining the truth.

He also said this about his next steps right here in The Situation Room yesterday.

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MATTHEW VAN HOUTEN, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, TOMPKINS COUNTY, NEW YORK: I've expressed to him our desire to meet with Jane Doe, to start the conversation, to understand what insights she has gained over the last two years, what additional reflections and healing that she's done that she can provide to us in terms of additional evidence that we could present to the grand jury.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN's Jason Carroll joins us live from Ithaca, New York. Jason, where do things stand this morning?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's clearly a lot to unpack here based on what you've been able to get from that six-page statement framed from Jane Doe and also from what other networks are reporting as well. WCBS, for example, had obtained a transcript from Jane Doe and her interview with campus police back in 2024.

And there are a lot of questions that are circulating here on campus, a lot of criticism that's been directed toward Cornell University, toward the District Attorney's office. A lot of people here on the ground asking for more transparency in terms of releasing information about where the investigation stands.

I can tell you that very early this morning, the D.A. told CNN this morning that he did not receive the transcript from campus police back in 2024. So, what at this point we're trying to do is to get more clarity in terms of what the D.A. received back in 2024.

As you know, the D.A. has come under a great deal of criticism in terms of why he did not file charges, his critics say, back in 2024.

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The district attorney telling CNN late last night that he is bound by the law.

Here's a little sample of what he had to say.

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VAN HOUTEN: Unfortunately, under New York state law, which I'm constrained by the voluntary intoxication of someone is not a basis to claim or to prove that they are incapacitated to the point that they cannot consent to sexual contact.

So, as much as I'm emotionally repulsed and morally repulsed by the events, I can't prosecute cases based on emotion or based upon moral standards or moral repulsion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Again, when you consider the six-page statement that Jane Doe gave back in 2024, and on top of that, when you consider the statement in the transcript that she gave to police back in 2024, she said several things notably, that she was heavily intoxicated, that she was initially okay with an encounter, but later that night she felt as though she did not give her consent, also saying at one point that she believed that she was raped.

And according to what ABC has obtained, she described thinking that if she had passed out that the men that had sex with her, and the men had sex with her, that then those men could later be charged with rape.

So, once again here, a lot of to unpack. What we're really looking for is more clarity in terms of what this Jane Doe told campus police back in 2024, and what sort of information was then relayed to the district attorney's office. Pamela?

BROWN: And as of right now, Jane Doe's attorney will be on The Situation Room this coming Friday. So, certainly a lot of questions for him as we try to unpack all of this in this very important story, and thank you so much, Jason.

Let's try to get a better understanding from the legal perspective with legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Elliot Williams. Great to see you as always, Elliot.

So, there's a lot to understand here. You have what WCBS obtained, and then you have this six-page statement that I obtained just before the show, her written statement to police. What questions does all of this raise for you when in these documents it's laid out that she was describing physically hit, that she described initially consenting and then later on not consenting.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right. Well, at a minimum, there are questions for Cornell University to answer about their response to all of this. The mere fact, Pam, that Cornell actually took actions against some of the students itself is damaging for Cornell because it indicates that the university knew that something incredibly serious had happened on campus such that they either suspended or expelled individuals and had -- felt the need to set up a task force thereafter. So, at a minimum, the university, I think is in hot water over all of this and ought to be, number one.

Number two, I think it's important to go to the New York state law on sexual assault in terms of when an individual can be deemed either, quote/unquote, physically helpless, which is what one of the first degree rape the standard would be, or mentally incapacitated, which would be the standard for mental for second degree rape.

Now, this came up in the prosecutor's statement if you in his quote above where he'd said that an individual who had voluntarily taken drugs cannot be deemed mentally incapacitated for under second degree rape law in New York state law, and he's correct there. So, all of those things, you have to pick apart the victim's statement to determine, you know, number one, when did this individual take substances, number two, when did this individual either consent or not consent to conduct.

These are very painful, fraught questions, but they have to be answered for any responsible prosecutor's office to be able to move forward with charges.

BROWN: Yes. And according to these documents, she reportedly told police that she was, quote, pretty okay with some of the sexual activity, but as I pointed out earlier, did not consent to everything that happened that night. So, legally speaking, does consent to one form of sexual contact constitute consent to all forms of sexual contact?

WILLIAMS: It's going to depend on the entire record here. And what you have, Pam, is the huge divide, and this is not uncommon in sexual assault cases across the United States, the big divide between moral misconduct and conduct that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court in the state of New York, where I'm admitted to practice. And that's going to be an immense challenge here.

Now, if there are acts that an individual consented to, a person cannot be prosecuted for engaging in those acts.

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However, by all accounts here, there are other acts that this victim did not consent to, at least based on the information that you're presenting here. People can be prosecuted for those depending on what else shows up in the record.

And so prosecutors, I would hope, are going through these statements very, very closely, and with a fine-tooth comb, and not, to your question, creating a broad brush and applying one set of consent to every single act that happened or every statement that happened by the defendant and every act that happened. They have to go through each one and prosecute each one separately if they can.

BROWN: So, how does New York's law that you pointed out about mental incapacitation and drug use play into the consent factor here?

WILLIAMS: Yes.

BROWN: Where she's saying, I consented early on, but not later on, and talked about doing drugs throughout this. Now, in the civil suit, her attorney says she was pressured into it, just for context.

WILLIAMS: Right. And civil suits and criminal suits, Pam, as you know, have a very, very different standard. They're much lower in criminal suits, and you can win -- pardon me, in civil suits, and you can win a civil suit far ea- more easily than you can win a criminal prosecution.

Now, for mental incapacitation, in the state of New York, surprisingly, an individual who voluntarily takes a substance cannot be deemed mentally incapacitated for the purposes of sexual assault law. They need to have been administered the drugs against their will by another person. That's for second-degree sexual assault or rape in the state of New York.

Now, if a person still is intoxicated on their own, they went to a bar, had a bunch of alcohol, and is blackout drunk, and is sexually assaulted, then that can be first-degree rape in the state of New York under what's called physical helplessness. There's a distinction there between the two.

And this whole debate over mental incapacitation a central question to be answered is, were the substances administered to the defendant against their will? And if they were not prosecutors are going to have a very hard time, if not an impossible time, charging that the person was, quote, mentally incapacitated under New York law.

BROWN: So, we know that based on everything that's out there, there was a Title IX investigator and a victim advocate that were present when Jane Doe spoke to a campus police investigator.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

BROWN: How important are they right now in this investigation to confirm what Jane Doe said at the time?

WILLIAMS: Oh critically important. Because of how long ago this -- I mean, you're talking two years, which is still a fair amount of time in people's memories and people's recollections of events that happened. Prosecutors will have to rely on the statements of multiple people. And that includes some of these Title IX investigators and so on.

I would also note that any electronic record that still exists, namely Snapchat, namely text messages, which don't lie. I mean, they are -- they -- years later, they still say the same thing they did a few years ago. The difference is somebody's memory might fade, but their text messages don't, and those are going to be critical here.

So, I would assume the prosecutors and investigators are, number one, talking to all those university investigators and all those university personnel and the Title IX folks, but also going very closely through every single digital record that exists at the time to see what they can piece together.

BROWN: Just very quickly as we wrap up. The D.A. says that he did not receive these other documents that WCBS is reporting. What do you make of that?

WILLIAMS: I think it's a lot of this, and you find this a lot of times in -- when there's competing jurisdictions. You have the Cornell University Police Department, the Ithaca Police Department, and the Thompson County New York D.A.'s office that when the system's working right, they're all working together well, but law enforcement agencies often are not sharing information in the way that they should. And there seems to have been some error, some mess-up, some deficiency a few years ago.

And, again, the university, I don't want to let the university off the hook here as well. All of them -- I think there's a lot of finger- pointing, and I think many of them are going to have a lot of questions in the coming weeks and months -- questions to answer in the coming weeks and months.

BROWN: Right. No, of course. Elliot Williams, thank you so much. You're welcome.

And we just want to note that if anyone watching right now, if you or anyone you know is struggling after a sexual assault, there is help. The National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24/7. The number is 1-800-656-HOPE. And there are also resources available at rainn.org.

Still ahead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the co- pilot of a FlyDubai flight apparently tried to crash the plane, setting off a violent incident in the cockpit.

And then later, more dramatic video from New Mexico after officials issue the highest level flood warning.

You're in the Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

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BROWN: A moment, as you see, of tremendous relief and exhilaration. Passengers aboard a flydubai flight erupt in cheers after the two pilots engaged in a bloody brawl.

Moments ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one pilot stabbed the other and may have apparently tried to crash the plane. As you can see here, the aircraft, we're going to pull up that video, dropped a terrifying 17,000 feet in two minutes as the flight traveled from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

The airline says a crew member took control and made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, and that is significant because Israel and Saudi Arabia don't really have diplomatic relations, and Israeli officials now tells, now tell CNN that Saudi Arabia has denied Israel's request to send a plane for the stranded passengers.

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A quick warning, these next images are disturbing. Passengers reportedly came to the aid of the injured pilot. Wow, look at this. One bloody passenger describing the ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are here on the plane right now. We have taken control of the terrorists. We are about to land. Anyone who hears me, we need help. We are landing in Tabuk, probably in the Saudi Arabia area, an unknown and unfamiliar area. Everyone on the plane is healthy and whole except for the pilot. We need help.

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BROWN: A lot to go through here from the counter-terrorism aspect and the aviation aspect. So, here to help us better understand is CNN Aviation Analyst Miles O'Brien, and CNN National Security Analyst Alex Pitsas. He is also director of the Counterterrorism Program at the Atlantic Council.

So, Alex, I want to start with you. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says one pilot stabbed the other and then apparently tried to crash the plane. You're the director of the Counterterrorism Program at the Atlantic Council. What does all of this tell you, and how does this happen in this day and age?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Sure. So, kind of remarkable, the entire situation, for a few reasons, and will talk about the aviation aspect of it. But in this particular case the, it appears that the pilot somehow managed to throw the door open, because one of the post 9/11 security changes is they lock from inside the cockpit doors to make sure that you can't have hijackers get in, because it wasn't really thought of that a pilot would be, you know, the one responsible for doing something like that. That allowed the passengers to come in.

So, the assumption at that point is, which is what the prime minister mentioned, we saw the dive that the plane took, that it was then pulled out of at the last minute. So, were they trying to get to a lower altitude? Were they trying to crash the plane? The motive is incredibly important here for a few reasons.

So, they were either trying to kill everybody on board, and you can, you know, from there surmise that this is a plane load of largely Israelis traveling back from Dubai to Tel Aviv at this point that speaks potentially to motive, but until we find out, we're not sure. If he wasn't attempting to crash it and kill everybody board, where was he going to take the aircraft? What country would actually allow him to land with these people being held hostage?

And the last piece I'll mention, it's terrorism is politically motivated violence against civilians, so the cause of a terrorist or would-be terrorist would need to be made known for the act of violence to sort of impact whatever the policy is they were looking for. So far, we've seen no claim of responsibility, and we haven't seen any evidence to date at this point that the guy was either affiliated with a state sponsor of terrorism or a group at this point. So, it could be a lone wolf actor. A lot more questions than we have answers to right now.

BROWN: All right. I believe we have some sound from Benjamin Netanyahu who says the co-pilot tried to bring the plane down apparently. Let's listen.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: This morning, there was a severe security incident on a flight from Dubai to Israel. Almost all the passengers on that flight were Israelis. During the flight, as they approached Israel, one of the pilots stabbed the second one and probably tried to crash the plane on all its passengers.

I spoke with one of the passengers, and he told me that the plane went into turbulence and started to sink, and that, in a way, somehow, he managed to broke into the cockpit and together with the other pilot that, that they neutralized the stabber.

Another team who were on the plane went into the cockpit and managed to stabilize the plane. I salute those heroes who were resourceful and discovered resourcefulness and saved the plane. The plane was land -- the plane landed in Tabuk, and we are in contact with the authorities in order to guarantee the passengers' welfare and safety and bringing back to Israel.

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BROWN: How scary this must have been for those passengers, Miles. This plane dropped more than 17,000 feet in two minutes. How dramatic is that for passengers inside the cabin?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Dramatic and structurally a problem. I don't know if you've seen the pictures, but it appears most of the rudder of that aircraft is gone. So, so many stresses as it dropped so precipitously that it lost the rudder. Fortunately, the conditions were such at that airport that they were able to land it.

Apparently, there were some deadheading, you know, off-duty pilots on board that assisted in this case, but what a heroic group of people on board that aircraft.

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You know, I always say that there was a switch flipped for passengers on 9/11, and that was at Shanksville when everything turned, and up until that time, passengers were told to just stay seated and a hijacking will work its way out. It'll be okay. It's a different world now, and those passengers on this aircraft realized that they needed to take action.

It makes me shudder because you have to wonder if indeed the intent was to deliberately crash that aircraft, where? They were headed to Tel Aviv, to Ben Gurion Airport. Any number of possible targets there. It's clearly a heroic action to save the day here, and the fact that nobody has died as a result of the crash of an airplane because of the heroic action of the passengers and those pilots who were on board is extraordinary.

BROWN: It is nothing short of extraordinary. Alex and Miles O'Brien, thank you very much. Coming up here in The Situation Room, a twist in the Lindsay Clancy case. Her lawyers now argue over the evidence that she was the one who killed her three children. What this could mean for a potential retrial.

And surviving postpartum psychosis, how one woman is using her experience to try to help other new mothers.

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