ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — A jailed Erie County man has filed papers in federal court alleging that Gov. Kathy Hochul had a sexual relationship with Tonawanda Democratic Chairman John Crangle when both worked in the Erie County Clerk’s Office, and that local political figures later retaliated against him after he accused them of corruption.
Hochul is married to former US Attorney for the Western District of NY, William Hochul.
An extramarital affair is not a crime. But the allegation, if substantiated, would place Hochul’s early political career inside the same Tonawanda patronage network that Flynn alleges has protected insiders and punished critics for years.
Flynn made these allegations in court pleadings that no judge has yet tested.
Ryan Flynn, who is a cousin of former Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, filed the allegations in U.S. District Court. He has been held without bail for more than four months on charges that he violated an order of protection by posting what prosecutors describe as a threatening message on social media directed at the former district attorney’s wife.
According to court filings, the evidence supporting the charge consists of a screenshot of an anonymous social media post from an account not registered to Flynn. Prosecutors have not publicly presented IP address data, device records, or metadata linking the account to him.
The case rests, for now, on a screenshot.
Flynn’s filing cites a recorded conversation with...
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