A report from the New York Times refutes the claim by Governor David Paterson that he was the one who revealed his conversation with the woman at the center of a domestic violence complaint against a top aide.

The Times says Paterson acted only after he knew the newspaper was aware of the conversation.

Paterson told WOR Radio yesterday that he was the first to say publicly that he spoke with the former girlfriend of David Johnson. He insists he did nothing wrong when he talked to her in February.

“The person who informed others that there was such a conversation was me,” said the governor. “And that’s all I’m going to say about it and it’s not my surmise; it’s an actual fact. But the individual who first made it clear that there had been a conversation was myself.”

Paterson would not say which media outlet he made this revelation to.

A special counsel is investigating whether the governor illegally tried to get the woman to drop the abuse complaint against Johnson.

(Source: http://www.ny1.com/)