Names and faces
■ A Maryland woman faces charges that she assaulted White House counselor Kellyanne Conway in front of Conway’s teenage daughter during a confrontation last year at a Mexican restaurant in a Washington suburb.
Mary Elizabeth Inabinett, 63, of Chevy
Chase, was charged in November with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct after the Oct. 14 incident and has a trial tentatively scheduled to start
March 29, court records show. In a CNN interview broadcast Friday, Conway said she was standing next to her middle-school-aged daughter and some of her daughter’s friends when the woman began shaking her “to the point where I thought maybe somebody was hugging me.” She said it felt “weird” and “a little aggressive,” so she turned around to face the woman. “She was just unhinged. She was out of control,” Conway said. “Her whole face was terror and anger. She was right here, and my daughter was right there. And she ought to pay for that. She ought to pay for that because she has no right to touch anybody.” Conway told police that the woman yelled and gestured at her for 8 to 10 minutes. The restaurant’s manager said the woman had to be forcibly removed from the premises. But Inabinett’s attorney, William Alden McDaniel Jr., said in a statement that his client exercised her First Amendment right “to express her personal opinions” about a public figure in a public place. McDaniel said his client didn’t assault Conway and will plead innocent to the misdemeanor charges. “The facts at trial will show this to be true, and show Ms. Conway’s account to be false,” the lawyer’s statement says.
■ Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich said the show had multiple conversations with Ariana Grande about possibly performing Sunday, but the singer “felt it was too late for her to pull something together.” But Grande fired back on Twitter this week, accusing Ehrlich of lying, writing “i’ve kept my mouth shut but now you’re lying about me.” Grande, nominated for two awards, best pop vocal album and best pop solo performance, has been featured on billboards promoting Sunday’s show. In an interview, Ehrlich said the Recording Academy wanted her to perform at the Grammys after having “conversations over the past month or so.” “As it turned out when we finally got to the point where we thought maybe it would work, she felt it was too late for her to pull something together for sure,” Ehrlich said Thursday. Grande wrote on Twitter that she “can pull together a performance over night and you know that, Ken,” saying she had offered three different songs. “It was when my creativity & self expression was stifled by you, that i decided not to attend. i hope the show is exactly what you want it to be and more,” she continued.