NYT Questions Paterson's Handling of Assault Case

The New York Times weighs in with the David Paterson "bombshell," take three. The new installment about New York's governor is the most serious of the bunch, laying out how he may have improperly used the full weight of his office to get a woman to drop assault charges against a top aide. The pressure reportedly included a phone call from Paterson himself to the alleged victim to ask if he could do anything for her.

As a result of the story, Paterson said he would ask Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate his administration's handling of the incident, and he's also suspending the aide in question, David Johnson, without pay. Johnson had been the topic of the first Paterson article, which spelled out the aide's past trouble with the law and altercations with women. Read a summary of it here.