Ex-Aide Claims Drug Use by Sen. Kennedy

WASHINGTON — A former administrative assistant to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy says in a new book that the Massachusetts Democrat used cocaine in the 1970s and once snorted the drug with two of his children. But a Kennedy spokesman denied the allegations.

Richard E. Burke writes in “The Senator: My Ten Years With Ted Kennedy” that he himself used cocaine and that Kennedy “never tried to hide his usage from me. Far from it.”

Kennedy said in a weekend statement that the book was “a collection of bizarre and untrue stories.” Kennedy spokesman Paul Donovan called the book “a work of fiction” and said Kennedy “has never done illegal drugs.”