NYS Gov. Paterson lashed back Tuesday at a report claiming he lied about shaking down the Yankees for free tickets to a World Series game – producing e-mails showing he was invited.

The Oct. 7-8 e-mails between members of Paterson’s staff,  are called “Yankees Game Tomorrow – GDAP INVITE,” highlighting the governor’s initials. The exchange took place weeks before the Oct. 28 game the governor attended.

They contradict some of the state Public Integrity Commission’s March 3 report charging the governor lied about how he wound up at the game and who paid for it. The commission’s allegations are the subject of two criminal probes.

The e-mails are part of a 10-page letter Paterson’s lawyer, Theodore Wells, sent the commission attacking several aspects of the report as “half-baked.”

“The report was rushed and any deliberations the commissin had were clearly limited. The entire process was flawed. It is not surprising that it led to the wrong result,” Wells wrote.

It’s the governor’s first substantive defense in the Yankees tickets mess. Until now he’s offered only general remarks, saying he can’t talk because of the criminal probes.

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