Update: Silver Aide’s Victim Speaks

Yesterday we reported on Elizabeth Crothers, the woman whose 2001 rape charges against a top Sheldon Silver aide appeared in both the New York Daily News and the New York Times, and who now publicly supports one of the challengers for the Assembly Speaker’s seat, Paul Newell.

Crothers had been tagged as a “Freeper” — that is, a frequent poster at the hard-right fringe website Free Republic — by DaBrinker Report, an assertion for which we could find no evident support. (DaBrinker Report has not responded to our enquiry.)

Last night Ms. Crothers sent a message to Runnin’ Scared:

“In regards to your July 15 post, you are correct that the anti-Newell site is entirely off-base,” said Crothers in an e-mail. “I have never contributed to the ‘Free Republic’ website and strongly disagree with absolutely everything that site espouses.”

Newell’s campaign manager, Evan Hutchison, also responded to us. He called Ms. Crothers “courageous” and DaBrinker Report “despicable.” Hutchison says he doubts the Silver campaign is directly responsible for the site, and supposes DaBrinker Report “probably involves people who have a stake in Silver staying in power.”

In other news related to this race, the Times reported today that “Friends of Sean Patrick Maloney,” a fund related to a top aide of Governor David Paterson, has donated $3,800 to the Silver campaign.