The woman who was quoted extensively in a New York Times article accusing Graham Platner of abuse during their past relationship is now claiming she was “set up” by the journalists who spoke with her. In her first public messages since the article was published Thursday, Lyndsey Fifield, Platner’s ex-girlfriend, posted a series of messages on X detailing how she initially “resisted her conservative bias” and decided to “fully trust the Times journalists.” “They connected me to two of the other victims so we wouldn’t feel so alone,” she wrote. “I insisted to each of them that I trusted the NYT journalists and that we were doing the right thing despite their (sadly very accurate) sense that something was wrong.”Her claims were published as part of a Times report on Platner’s relationships with previous girlfriends, some of whom viewed him positively and others who described him as sometimes insulting, volatile or unfaithful.A second woman named in the article, Jenny Racicot, who reportedly dated Platner between 2019 and 2021, called Platner’s behavior toward her “reckless” and “unsettling.” Since the story was published, Fifield says she began to ask, “Where are the stories from other women?” and “Where are the accusations of sexual assault?” No woman has come forward with direct allegations of sexual assault against Platner.Fifield also claims the Times left out key details, including that she had allegedly confided in multiple friends over the years about Platner’s behavior, “long before he was running for office.” Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, has denied being violent and Fifield’s claims that he twisted her arm behind her back and held her in a room when they dated more than a decade ago. In a statement to Maine’s Total Coverage, the Marine veteran cited his undiagnosed PTSD and said he was “far from the perfect boyfriend” but that any characterization beyond that is “false and politically motivated.”Fifield is a conservative activist whom the Times reported has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns. In her X message, Fifield took issue with the Times not mentioning that she “supported local Democrats” and that most of her family and husband are liberal. “It dawned on me that this really was a set up all along,” Fifield wrote Friday morning. “The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life.” Fifield says she came forward with her story despite the risk of “psychotic doxxing from violent leftist activists,” because the “guilty of staying silent” had “nagged” her.Fifield also criticized the Times for taking quotes out of context, focusing the bulk of the story on her instead of other alleged victims, and not including screenshots she had provided of messages between her and Platner. U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who is set to appear alongside Platner at a campaign event in Bar Harbor on Friday, called the behavior described in the Times as “wrong and toxic,” but added, “Graham has acknowledged that and sought redemption. The people of Maine deserve a senator who is going to stand up to the billionaire class, against genocide, and for the working class.”
The woman who was quoted extensively in a New York Times article accusing Graham Platner of abuse during their past relationship is now claiming she was “set up” by the journalists who spoke with her.
In her first public messages since the article was published Thursday, Lyndsey Fifield, Platner’s ex-girlfriend, posted a series of messages on X detailing how she initially “resisted her conservative bias” and decided to “fully trust the Times journalists.”
“They connected me to two of the other victims so we wouldn’t feel so alone,” she wrote. “I insisted to each of them that I trusted the NYT journalists and that we were doing the right thing despite their (sadly very accurate) sense that something was wrong.”
Her claims were published as part of a Times report on Platner’s relationships with previous girlfriends, some of whom viewed him positively and others who described him as sometimes insulting, volatile or unfaithful.
A second woman named in the article, Jenny Racicot, who reportedly dated Platner between 2019 and 2021, called Platner’s behavior toward her “reckless” and “unsettling.”
Since the story was published, Fifield says she began to ask, “Where are the stories from other women?” and “Where are the accusations of sexual assault?”
No woman has come forward with direct allegations of sexual assault against Platner.
Fifield also claims the Times left out key details, including that she had allegedly confided in multiple friends over the years about Platner’s behavior, “long before he was running for office.”
Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, has denied being violent and Fifield’s claims that he twisted her arm behind her back and held her in a room when they dated more than a decade ago. In a statement to Maine’s Total Coverage, the Marine veteran cited his undiagnosed PTSD and said he was “far from the perfect boyfriend” but that any characterization beyond that is “false and politically motivated.”
Fifield is a conservative activist whom the Times reported has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns. In her X message, Fifield took issue with the Times not mentioning that she “supported local Democrats” and that most of her family and husband are liberal.
“It dawned on me that this really was a set up all along,” Fifield wrote Friday morning. “The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life.”
Fifield says she came forward with her story despite the risk of “psychotic doxxing from violent leftist activists,” because the “guilty of staying silent” had “nagged” her.
Fifield also criticized the Times for taking quotes out of context, focusing the bulk of the story on her instead of other alleged victims, and not including screenshots she had provided of messages between her and Platner.
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U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who is set to appear alongside Platner at a campaign event in Bar Harbor on Friday, called the behavior described in the Times as “wrong and toxic,” but added, “Graham has acknowledged that and sought redemption. The people of Maine deserve a senator who is going to stand up to the billionaire class, against genocide, and for the working class.”