A donor to Donald J. Trump has accused the previous president’s longtime political adviser Corey Lewandowski of constructing undesirable sexual advances and touching her inappropriately at a dinner in Las Vegas on Sunday evening.
The donor, Trashelle Odom, made the allegations about Mr. Lewandowski in an announcement that was first reported on Wednesday by Politico and that was later supplied to The New York Instances.
“He repeatedly touched me inappropriately, mentioned vile and disgusting issues to me, stalked me, and made me really feel violated and fearful,” she mentioned within the assertion concerning the dinner. “I’m coming ahead as a result of he must be held accountable.”
Mrs. Odom was amongst a small group of individuals on the dinner on the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & On line casino, a part of an occasion held by the Victoria’s Voice Basis, which focuses on combating drug dependancy. Mrs. Odom sat subsequent to Mr. Lewandowski, who leads Mr. Trump’s tremendous PAC. On the occasion, she mentioned within the assertion, Mr. Lewandowski “bragged a number of occasions about how highly effective he’s” and “claimed he controls the previous president.”
In response to the Odom household lawyer, who declined to be recognized, Mr. Lewandowski repeatedly touched Mrs. Odom’s leg and her bottom, grew aggressive at numerous factors and threw a drink at her when she made clear she was rebuffing him. In her assertion, Mrs. Odom mentioned she had feared for her security.
Her husband, John Odom, an Idaho businessman, mentioned in an announcement that the household was contemplating authorized choices. Mr. and Mrs. Odom wouldn’t communicate on to a reporter concerning the allegations, they usually haven’t but filed a grievance with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division.
Mr. Lewandowski didn’t touch upon the allegations, and his Las Vegas-based lawyer, David Z. Chesnoff, mentioned solely that “accusations and rumor look like morphing by the minute and we is not going to dignify them with an extra response.”
One one who attended the dinner, who declined to be recognized for worry of retribution, informed The Instances that Mrs. Odom’s account was correct.
Mr. Trump, who usually avoids direct interpersonal confrontation, has lengthy been identified to have a gentle spot for Mr. Lewandowski, and his aides didn’t reply to an electronic mail on Wednesday looking for touch upon the Las Vegas encounter and asking whether or not Mr. Lewandowski would stay on the tremendous PAC.
Additionally on the dinner in Las Vegas was Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, whom Mr. Lewandowski has been advising for a lot of months.
Mr. Lewandowski was Mr. Trump’s first marketing campaign supervisor in 2016, however removed from his final. He was fired in June 2016 after conflicts with Mr. Trump’s youngsters and a collection of incidents that the Trump household fearful had solid the candidate in a detrimental mild.
Earlier that 12 months, Mr. Lewandowski was accused by Michelle Fields, on the time a reporter for the right-wing web site Breitbart, of forcibly yanking her away from the candidate after a information convention in Florida. Regardless of video of the incident, Mr. Lewandowski denied that something inappropriate had occurred, and Mr. Trump aggressively defended him and denounced the information media’s protection of Ms. Fields’s allegation.
And in November 2017, a Trump supporter and singer named Pleasure Villa filed a grievance stating that Mr. Lewandowski had slapped her on the buttocks throughout a celebration on the Trump Worldwide Resort in Washington. It’s unclear what turned of that grievance.
For months, a number of of Mr. Trump’s advisers have privately complained that Mr. Lewandowski’s connections with the tremendous PAC and with Mr. Trump’s political orbit have helped him along with his different shoppers, together with Ms. Noem. With Mr. Trump out of workplace, most of his advisers now have shoppers outdoors his speedy world.