A lobbyist is suing the New York Times for $27m over an article published in February which she claims suggested that she had an affair with Senator John McCain. The article, which sent shockwaves through the US presidential election campaign, was hotly disputed at the time and led to a souring of relations between the Republican nominee and the paper.
In the lawsuit, which names the New York Times and its senior editors as well as the reporters who worked on the 3,000-word front-page article, attorneys for Vicki Iseman, a Washington lobbyist, argue that the paper "falsely communicated" that their client and McCain "had an illicit 'romantic' and unethical relationship in breach of the public trust in 1999".
Although the article did not explicitly say that the two had had an affair, it cited anonymous sources who were said to be "convinced the relationship had become romantic".
The article, headlined "For McCain, self-confidence on ethics poses its own risk", was published just as McCain was securing his position as the Republican nominee, and staking much of his appeal on his stated intention to clean up Washington and combat the influence of lobbyists.
The complaint, filed in a US district court in Richmond, New York, states that Iseman, 41, has suffered mentally, emotionally and in her health since the article appeared.
In a statement the New York Times said: "We fully stand behind the article. We continue to believe it to be true and accurate, and that we will prevail. As we said at the time, it was an important piece that raised questions about a presidential contender and the perception that he had been engaged in conflicts of interest."
