A former girlfriend of embattled Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner has accused The New York Times of ‘betrayal’ and ‘gaslighting’ in how reporters framed and handled her allegations of abuse. Lyndsey Fifield spoke out to Fox News Digital following a bombshell report by Politico on Monday detailing separate sexual assault allegations against Platner, which ultimately forced him to drop out of the race on Wednesday night.

Allegations of Abuse

Fifield and another woman, Jenny Racicot, were both interviewed for a June 4 article published by The New York Times detailing Platner’s ‘unsettling’ behavior with women. However, Fifield now argues that the paper ‘tainted’ their accounts by downplaying critical details, focusing heavily on her personal political career, and falsely claiming her story could not be verified.

According to Fifield, Times reporters Katie Glueck and Lisa Lerer initially contacted her in April, insistently urging her to go on the record. Fifield, who dated Platner from 2013 to 2015, said she did not want to participate but was made to feel guilty that the stories of other vulnerable women would go untold if she remained silent.

Response from The New York Times

A spokesperson for The New York Times strongly rejected the allegations of political bias or deliberate suppression, standing firmly behind the journalism, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.