I am so happy to see all of this support and all of this come back to the light of day. Silver did nothing, nothing and when it came to the point where he did, what did he do? He made US pay the $50,000…..

Silver is pond scum in my eyes and should have been ousted out of office long ago. Best of luck to Newell.

Two Accusers of an Ex-Aide Join an Effort to Oust Silver - NYTimes.com

ALBANY — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, facing his first primary challenge in more than two decades, has a new and potentially haunting problem: Two women who have said they were sexually assaulted by a former top aide to Mr. Silver have stepped forward in an attempt to defeat him.

Criticism of how Mr. Silver handled the accusations brought by the women has followed him since the allegations arose in 2001 and 2003. Both women, who were legislative aides in their 20s when they said the assaults occurred, are actively recruiting supporters for Paul Newell, a 33-year-old community activist who is one of two Democrats in Lower Manhattan making long-shot bids to oust one of the most powerful Democrats in the state.

In 2001, Elizabeth Crothers, a 25-year-old aide to a Republican assemblyman, accused Mr. Silver’s chief counsel, J. Michael Boxley, of sexually assaulting her in his apartment. She chose to pursue the matter through the Assembly instead of the police, and blamed Mr. Silver for what she said was an unfair investigation. The investigation was eventually closed, and Mr. Boxley, who denied the accusation, remained working for Mr. Silver.

In 2003, Mr. Boxley was hauled out of the Capitol in handcuffs and charged with raping another woman, who has never been publicly identified and is referred to in court filings as Jane Doe. Mr. Boxley ultimately resigned his post and pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct under a deal that allowed him to avoid going to jail.

In 2006, Mr. Silver and the Assembly leadership agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by Jane Doe accusing Mr. Silver of failing to properly investigate the Crothers case and of tolerating a culture of sexual harassment in the Assembly.

Jane Doe has donated to the Newell campaign and has urged friends in an e-mail message to do so, according to both Ms. Crothers and Mr. Newell. Ms. Crothers’ support for Mr. Newell was first reported by The Daily News.

The support of the two women for Mr. Newell is likely to rekindle debate about one of the darkest chapters in Mr. Silver’s career and resurrect talk of the recurring problems with sexual harassment in Albany.

“I’ve never seen someone so willing to compromise other people’s lives and well-beings just to suit even a fairly small political goal,” Ms. Crothers said in an interview.

Hillary Richard, a Manhattan lawyer who represented Jane Doe in her lawsuit against Mr. Silver, also said she planned to donate to Mr. Newell’s campaign.