ALBANY — To many in Albany, New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, seemed staid and somewhat standoffish: 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 on Monday night after the publication of an expose by The New Yorker, detailing allegations of a sordid and stomach-turning double life, including Mr. 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 Trump.

The article ricocheted around the New York and national political scene at a quark’s pace, leading to nearly immediate calls for Mr. 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.



He gave himself one day to clear out his desk, his reign officially ending at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The resignation brought to an abrupt end his two terms in office and two decades in public service, marked with accomplishments that included successfully suing Mr. Trump 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.