Conway says she was assaulted by woman
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was out celebrating her teenage daughter’s birthday at a Mexican restaurant in Maryland when, she later told police, she felt someone grab her from behind.
Conway said she thought someone was trying to get her attention to tell her goodbye before leaving the party.
But, she said, she soon realized that was not the case.
Conway recounted the incident in a recent interview with CNN, explaining that the encounter, which occurred in October at an Uncle Julio’s restaurant in Bethesda, felt a little too “aggressive” to be a hug.
“I turned around, and the woman had grabbed my hands,” she told CNN, adding that the woman started shouting and shaking her. “She was just unhinged. She was out of control. I don’t even know how to explain her to you. She was just — her whole face was terror and anger. She was right here, and my daughter was right there.”
When asked about the incident, Conway declined to provide comment to The Washington Post.
Following a police investigation, the woman, who was identified in court documents as Mary Elizabeth Inabinett, a 63-year-old resident of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was charged with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct. It was the authorities, not Conway, who filed the criminal charges in the case.
Inabinett’s attorney, William Alden McDaniel Jr., denied the allegations against his client in a statement to the Post. He said Inabinett “saw Kellyanne Conway, a public figure, in a public place, and exercised her First Amendment right to express her personal opinions. She did not assault Ms. Conway. The facts at trial will show this to be true, and show Ms. Conway’s account to be false.”
But Conway told CNN that Inabinett “ought to pay.”
“She has no right to touch anybody,” she told CNN.
In Maryland, seconddegree assault, which is a misdemeanor, is broadly defined and can range from grabbing or spitting on someone to repeatedly punching the person in the face. Inabinett is scheduled to go on trial next month in state court.
Authorities responded to the alleged assault on the evening of Oct. 14 at the Uncle Julio’s.
A restaurant manager told police that the woman, who was also dining there, was screaming “Shame on you,” among other things thought to be about “Conway’s political views,” but that the pair had been separated by the time she arrived on the scene, according to the summons.