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Jameis Winston's Sexual Assault Accuser's Attorneys Fire Back At David Cornwell's Letter to FSU (UDPATE)

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The attorneys representing Jameis Winston's sexual assault accuser have released a statement refuting David Cornwell's leaked letter to Florida State University (FSU).

According to USA Today, John Clune and Blaine Kerr, who represent the alleged victim, said Cornwell, Winston's attorney, initiated the settlement talks he mentioned in the letter. TMZ first reported the contents of the letter.

Now obtained by several media outlets, Cornwell wrote to FSU to tell the administration his client is ready to fully cooperate in their Title IX investigation. He also accused Patricia Carroll, the alleged victim's lawyer at the time, of attempting to extort Winston by asking for $7 million in exchange for silence.

Clune and Kerr said in their own statement, obtained by USA Today, that Cornwell left certain details out and even acted inappropriately when negotiating a settlement with Carroll.

"The facts that Mr. Cornwell chose not to disclose are that it was he himself who reached out to our client's former counsel Patricia Carroll to discuss paying off our client. Patricia Carroll didn't' even know who David Cornwell was until he called. Mr. Cornwell then himself flew down from Atlanta to negotiate with Ms. Carroll," Clune and Kerr said in their statement. "Settlement discussions were immediately unproductive as Cornwell was crude and insulting going so far as to say 'your client likes to (expletive) football players.

"When told that the client's main concern was not money but that Winston be held accountable for his actions, Cornwell threatened to sue our client and her parents for civil racketeering in an effort to intimidate them into staying quiet."

Carroll reportedly did not respond to USA Today's request for comment.

Deadspin noted that what Cornwell accused Carroll of falls just short of attempted extortion and Cornwell rejected the offer anyway.

According to TMZ's report on Cornwell's letter, the alleged victim went to the media after Cornwell turned down the offer. But a Tampa-based reporter told Deadspin in Nov. that he was tipped off to look into a certain Tallahassee Police case, which turned out to be filed by Winston's accuser.

If the alleged victim did tip off the media to her open (and idle) case, then she may not have done it alone, because the Tampa reporter said he only looked into the case at the urging of a trusted source.

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