New York’s top law enforcement officer has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault, leading him to resign his post with almost immediate effect.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is accused by four women who say they were in relationships with him at the time. They say he hit them, multiple times and without their consent, and threatened violence on several occasions if they were to report him to police or leave him.

The allegations were brought in interviews with the New Yorker, and two of the four women agreed to let the magazine disclose their names publicly.

Mr Schneiderman has strongly denied the claims, but said he would be unable to continue his work as attorney general while they are being investigated.

He said in a statement: “In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity. I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in nonconsensual sex, which is a line I would not cross.”

In its reporting of the claims, the New Yorker alleged that: “Over the past year, [two of his accusers] watched with admiration as other women spoke out about sexual misconduct. But, as [Mr] Schneiderman used the authority of his office to assume a major role in the #MeToo movement, their anguish and anger grew.”

Two of the women are Democrats who live in New York City and another is reported to be a high-profile lawyer. She has declined to be identified but claimed that when she rebuffed Mr Schneiderman’s advances he slapped her so hard she was left with a bruise across her face. He allegedly hit another accuser with enough force to cause serious damage to her ear.

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The new allegations come after Mr Schneiderman took on a leading role at the centre of the expanding investigation against Mr Weinstein.

In February, Mr Scheiderman filed a civil rights suit against Mr Weinstein after more than 60 women - including actresses Ashley Judd, Lupita Nyong’o, Salma Hayek and Anabella Sciorra - accused him of varying forms of sexual harassment and misconduct.

The attorney general said at a news conference then: “We have never seen anything as despicable as what we’ve seen right here”.

Mr Weinstein has denied all the allegations of wrongdoing.

It was only last week that Mr Schneiderman began investigating how previous complaints against the movie mogul may have been mishandled by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr and the New York City Police Department for possibly favouring Mr Weinstein instead of allowing victims to be taken seriously.

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On 1 May, Mr Schneiderman was given an award by the National Institute for Reproductive Health charity for his commitment to furthering women’s rights in reproductive health and access to abortion services. “If a woman cannot control her body, she is not truly equal,” he said at an awards luncheon.