Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former governor of New York who was forced to resign in 2008 after a prostitution scandal, has been accused of choking a woman in the suite of a hotel.
Police were called to The Plaza, one of New York’s most famous hotels, on Saturday night after Svetlana Travis, 25, accused him of attacking her.
Miss Travis said that she told Mr Spitzer, 56, that she was going back to Russia, a source told The New York Post.
“He got upset and started throwing her around, choked her, threw her to the ground and threatened her,” the source told the paper.
“She then broke a glass, cut herself and called 911.”
She was taken to a Manhattan hospital, where she told employees that Mr Spitzer had attacked her, sources said. Mr Spitzer arrived at the hospital to visit her on Sunday.
New York police department have opened an investigation.
Lisa Linden, Mr Spitzer’s spokeswoman, said: “There is no truth to the allegation.”
It is believed Miss Travis knew Mr Spitzer for about two years. She has refused to press charges, and is thought to have fled to Russia.
Mr Spitzer was elected governor of New York state in 2007. But less than a year later he was forced to resign after it was revealed he had been using prostitutes.
Investigators believe Mr Spitzer paid up to $80,000 (£55,000) for prostitutes over a period of several years while he was attorney general, and later as governor. One of the women, Ashley Dupre, became something of a minor celebrity and posed for Playboy. Mr Spitzer was never charged.
His wife Silda Wall initially stood by him, but the couple, who have three daughters, divorced in 2013.
Mr Spitzer tried to make a return to politics, running for New York City comptroller in 2013, but losing in the Democratic primary.
He is now a financial technology investor.