Donald Trump's adviser was accused of groping 2 women in 2021 at Arizona club
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A woman says Boris Epshteyn, a special adviser to Donald Trump, repeatedly groped her and her sister inside a Scottsdale nightclub in 2021, according to police body camera footage obtained by The Arizona Republic.
Epshteyn, who had worked with Arizona politicians to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss, was accused of sexually assaulting the women at the Bottled Blonde nightclub early in the morning of Oct. 10, 2021.
“All night he’s been touching me and my sister, especially my sister. He kind of cornered her and grabbed her and is just making her super uncomfortable,” a 27-year-old woman told police in the body camera footage.
The Arizona Republic is not identifying the women, one of whom described Epshteyn’s actions as “molesting” them inside the club.
“Touching her chest, touching her hips, touching her crotch,” the woman told police just before police ordered Epshteyn, wearing shorts, sandals and a collared shirt, to sit on a nearby curb that was strewn with chewing gum and cigarette butts.
Epshteyn was charged with “assault touching,” “attempted sexual abuse,” “harassment-repeated acts” and “disorderly conduct-disruptive behavior or fighting.”
The first three charges were dismissed, but Epshteyn pleaded guilty in Scottsdale City Court to disorderly conduct and served probation. The conviction was set aside by the court in January 2023.
Reached by The Arizona Republic on Wednesday, Epshteyn declined to comment on the incident.
Epshteyn was a White House special assistant to former President Trump. He is a lawyer who has served a variety of roles for Trump dating at least to the 2016 presidential campaign. He has drawn media attention of late because of Trump’s federal indictment, which lists six unnamed co-conspirators.
Epshteyn’s actions in Arizona, including communications with a lawyer who helped coordinate the “fake” electors from the state, are similar to actions described as “Co-Conspirator 6.”
The other five conspirators can be identified because of their well-documented actions working for Trump to overturn the 2020 election, including Rudy Giuliani, who appears to be “Co-Conspirator 1.”
The Arizona fake electors for Trump portrayed themselves as the rightful electors even though Joe Biden won the statewide vote.
History of trouble in Scottsdale
Epshteyn ran into trouble in Arizona before Trump even announced his 2016 campaign. The 2021 arrest was his second in seven years in Scottsdale. In 2014, he was charged with “assault - touched to injure” in a fight at another nearby club, Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row.
A man accused Epshteyn of punching him in the nose, according to a report Scottsdale police provided Thursday to The Republic. A supplement to the report said that at 6 feet 4 inches and 275 pounds, Epshteyn was "significantly larger than the other man," who had a contusion on his nose.
In the 2014 case, Epshteyn signed a plea deal, agreeing not to have contact with the victim and not to return to the venue, to pay court fees, and to complete 25 hours of community service.
Handwritten notes on that agreement indicate he was allowed to complete the program in his home state of New Jersey. Scottsdale police did not have body camera footage of that arrest.
In the 2021 case, he was sentenced to five days in jail but credited with time served if he completed 11 months of probation, completed an alcohol program, paid a fine and avoided contact with the two women.
Unlike the prior incident, the plea deal did not prohibit him from returning to the venue. But representatives from Evening Entertainment Group, which runs Bottled Blonde, said Epshteyn would not be welcomed back.
"If this person approached our door and was recognized, they would not be allowed entrance going forward," the company said.
Women talked to police about Epshteyn
The police report and its supplements describe how a security guard at Bottled Blonde flagged Scottsdale police on patrol in the downtown bar district, referred to as the “U,” and notified the officers of a possible sexual assault early that Sunday morning.
Security directed police to two women, one of whom was crying.
Video from body cameras worn by six officers details the women's statements to police and Epshteyn's arrest as dozens of people walked, danced and mingled on the street lined with nightclubs and filled with booming music.
The women were sisters, they said, and were only identifiable in the blurred police video by their bright dresses. Both live out of state.
The older sister, wearing orange, strained her voice over the music coming from the clubs.
"That guy was molesting women in the bar and the bar told us to go drink with him," she said.
She said Epshteyn pulled the younger sister onto his lap, and that she told security the man was behaving inappropriately, but initially the club security team declined to do anything.
“The club is like, 'Oh, he’s spent like fifty grand here tonight. We’re not going to say (expletive),'” she told police.
Epshteyn declined to say whether he spent that amount.
Evening Entertainment Group provided a response when asked about that description of events.
"We have a robust security team who are singularly focused on the safety and enjoyment of all of our guests day-in and day-out," the statement said in part. "This was an isolated incident, and we have had no additional interaction with these guests, or complaints of this nature in our 10 years in business."
The woman told police that Epshteyn again grabbed the younger sister as the women were leaving.
The younger sister, wearing pink and still crying as police tried to speak with her, declined to press charges, sobbing to police she just wanted to go home. Another friend told police she would take the younger woman back to their rental property.
The older sister continued to talk with police.
"We have a high tolerance of people like being weird, but that went above and beyond," she said, adding that the man grabbed the women about 10 times. "I was like, stop touching my sister. Stop touching me. Stop touching my friends."
Police asked the older sister to describe Epshteyn.
“Fat, ugly, like drooping face. White Ralph Lauren Polo," she said. "Like fatter Tony Soprano.”
An officer asked: “Would you be willing to press charges?”
She responded: “Yes. (Expletive) that guy.”
While the women talked to police outside the club, security pulled Epshteyn out a side gate and police directed him to sit on the curb.
“A female is alleging that you touched her inappropriately, OK,” an officer told Epshteyn as he sat.
Ephsteyn asked if he could stand up and was told no, that he was being detained. He also commented to the officer that he didn’t do anything, but the officer didn’t ask questions because, as he explained in his subsequent report, he had yet to read Epshteyn his rights.
“I didn’t touch anybody,” Epshteyn said, later adding, “I had nothing to do with those women over there.” He repeatedly asked to stand up, but police kept him on the curb.
After an officer read him his rights, Epshteyn had “no comment.” The flashing lights of an approaching police vehicle marked “Detention Unit” then became visible down the street.
At one point in the video, Epshteyn signaled to someone off-camera and waved the person over to where he was sitting on the curb. Then he pointed in that direction and told the officer, “That’s my attorney. My attorney is over there.”
The time stamp on the camera at that time was 1:42 a.m. The person off-camera did not come into view. Epshteyn declined to comment as to whether his lawyer actually arrived at the scene.
About 20 minutes after they arrived, officers cuffed Epshteyn. They told him to watch his head as he climbed into the Detention Unit.
Underway: Arizona fake electors, Cyber Ninjas' 'audit' under investigation by state attorney general
Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @UtilityReporter.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Donald Trump's adviser Boris Epshteyn groped 2 women Arizona club
