A stammering and clearly concerned Gov. Paterson ducked questions this morning about whether he called a Bronx woman before she abandoned a domestic violence case against one of his closest aides.
In an interview scheduled before the bombshell broke last night, Paterson said he first learned about “disturbing and alarming” allegations yesterday that members of his security detail pressured the woman to drop her case against his aide and confidant, David Johnson.
Although initially reported that Paterson personally called the woman as while reporters were probing the incident, a Paterson official told The Post that she’s the one who called him. The governor this morning refused to shed any more light the alleged conversation.
“I’ve now turned this over to the attorney general,” Paterson told WOR 710AM radio host John Gambling. “This is now an investigation. I want to get to the bottom of it and he wants to get to the bottom of it. The best thing for me is that the actual facts come out. The facts at they occurred. Not actually what one might think.”
Pressed, Paterson again refused to discuss the matter.
“I don’t want to talk about that because it just, you know, those are things I’m sure the attorney general will ask myself about and I’m sure they’ll ask anyone else,” Paterson said. “So I don’t want to step in front of it.”