Trump aide says she was assaulted at restaurant United States

A Maryland woman faces charges that she assaulted White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, pictured, in front of her teenage daughter during a confrontation last year at a restaurant in a Washington, DC suburb.

Mary Elizabeth Inabinett, 63, of Chevy Chase, is charged with seconddegree assault and disorderly conduct, and has a trial tentatively scheduled to start on March 29.

Conway told police she was attending a birthday party on October 14 at a Mexican restaurant in Bethesda when she felt somebody grab her shoulders from behind and shake her. The woman who confronted Conway yelled, ‘‘Shame on you’’ and ‘‘other comments believed to about Conway’s political views’’, a charging document says. Inabinett’s lawyer, William Alden McDaniel Jr, said his client exercised her First Amendment right ‘‘to express her personal opinions’’ about a public figure in a public place. He said Inabinett did not assault Conway, and would plead not guilty. In a CNN interview broadcast yesterday, Conway said: ‘‘She was just unhinged. She was out of control. Her whole face was terror and anger . . . she has no right to touch anybody.’’

The restaurant manager told police that the woman who confronted Conway had to be forcibly removed.