According to Kaufmann, Spitzer had known the woman, identified in the statement as Svetlana Travis, “for a period of time”.
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Former Governor Eliot Spitzer has been accused by a Russian woman of choking her and tossing her to the ground.
The woman called 911 from a hotel room rented in Spitzer’s name on Saturday evening, saying she had cut herself and was distraught and having a breakdown, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case.
Someone called 911 and the woman was brought to Roosevelt Hospital where NYPD detectives interviewed her about the alleged assault, sources said.
The sources added that the woman told the police that Spitzer had choked her. One official, reported by ABC News, said that the fight appeared to have started after the woman tried to end the relationship. She sustained a small cut to the top of her wrist during the commotion, which prompted hotel officials to call police. A Spitzer spokerson said in a statement there is “there is no truth to the allegation”.
“I can not allow for my private failings to disrupt the people’s work”, Spitzer said upon stepping down from office on March 17, 2008, reported NPR. Meanwhile, his wife of 25 years, Silda Spitzer, remained married to him, more or less, although in July 2013 they were said to be living apart and she was reportedly plotting a post-election emancipation.
She suggested that she made up the assault story because she was scared she would be hospitalized for a long period.
She said she didn’t want to press charges.
Police said they are trying to “further establish the identity of the subject and the nature of the incident”. No other details were given. He became governor in 2007, but his political fortunes imploded after he was ensnared in an investigation of a prostitution ring in which he infamously was referred to in court papers as “client 9” of 22-year-old prostitute Ashley Dupre.
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Spitzer, a Democrat, served as the New York State attorney general before being elected governor in 2006.
