Lyndsey Fifield, an ex-girlfriend of Graham Platner, pushed back on The New York Times for whitewashing her account of him, saying it was a “gift” to the embattled Maine Senate Democratic hopeful.
Ms. Fifield’s account about Mr. Platner is yet another blow to his campaign that’s trying to stay alive amid mounting issues ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
“I bucked all advice from my friends (and resisted my conservative bias) and decided to fully trust the Times journalists,” Ms. Fifield said on X. “As they left my home, they asked that I not talk to any other outlets, and I insisted then and repeatedly over the following weeks that I would keep my word and only share this story with them.”
Ms. Fifield said she was later pressured to go on the record and provide more screenshots, which she said she provided along with sources and further evidence.
“After the story went up I began to ask them … wait, where are the stories from the other women? Where are their accusations of sexual assault? Why am I the focus? Why are there 11 paragraphs dedicated to detailing my work history (more than has been published about Graham’s by far)?” she asked.
“Why does it say ’nobody could corroborate’ when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate?”
Ms. Fifield, who dated Mr. Platner between 2013 and 2015, posted that when he announced his candidacy, she anonymously shared information about a Nazi tattoo he had. He figured out she did it.
Mr. Platner has publicly stated that he learned his chest tattoo was a Nazi symbol — the Totenkopf, or death’s head, associated with the SS — only when reporters reached out to him last fall during his campaign.
Ms. Fifield told the NYT that was false. She said that while they were dating years ago, he referred to the tattoo as “my Totenkopf” and openly joked about it being a Nazi symbol.
She said he explained that he and fellow Marines chose it because they saw themselves as a “death unit.”
On X, Ms. Fifield insisted she would never have spoken out even more if he had not attacked her reputation behind the scenes.
“I tried to signal that I wasn’t the source and stayed completely silent about him on social media even as most of my friends posted regularly about what a bad person he is,” she posted.
“They said, ‘But wait — there are other women. Women terrified to tell their stories, too, and you need to band together. WE will help you. We will protect you. Men can’t keep getting away with this.’
“It was excruciating. I was surprised by what details I remembered, and as I [poured] through old messages I was horrified by how much I had forgotten.”
Ms. Fifield eventually agreed and shared diary entries, screenshots and contacts with the NYT journalists. She notes that, as is common with abuse survivors, she had not reported his alleged violence at the time and had defended him — but the journalists said her diary and on-record account were sufficient.
She said she learned through this process that Mr. Platner had been simultaneously in a relationship with another victim.
Ms. Fifield described her current life as happy, stable and loving — a good marriage, two daughters, a comfortable home — and says her decision to come forward was the morally courageous choice despite real risks, including doxxing.
She said she decided to go public to ensure accountability and end Mr. Platner’s pattern of lying and to model courage for her daughters.
Ms. Fifield, a conservative who has worked for the Heritage Foundation and the Independent Women’s Forum, was among a handful of women the NYT spoke to about Mr. Platner.
The other women were registered Democrats, one of whom described herself as “collateral damage to the world that is [Platner’s]” and another who said his attitude toward women had not completely changed since his later years in Maine.
Ms. Fifield told the outlet that Mr. Platner regularly grabbed her by the shoulders, sometimes hard enough to leave marks. She also said he yanked her out of a cab by her wrist during an argument.
Ms. Fifield alleges that during one altercation, Mr. Platner twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door shut from the outside, telling her to stay until she was “calm.”
“It hurt,” she said. But she added: “It didn’t cause an injury, it didn’t break my arm.”
Ms. Fifield also described a Platner worldview of violence and dominance, saying he kept an AR-15 in his D.C. apartment and would sharpen an ax while watching TV.
Most alarmingly, she recalled him repeatedly saying: “If anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them — to show them that I’m dominant.”
Mr. Platner said he was “far from a perfect boyfriend” who “too often self-medicated with alcohol” during a “very dark period” of his life, adding, “I take responsibility for all of that.”
He specifically disputed Ms. Fifield’s allegations, calling them false and “politically motivated.”
