Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn was arrested in 2021 on charges of groping two women in an Arizona bar, recently released police bodycam video shows.
Three sexual misconduct charges were later dropped, and Epshteyn pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge two months after the Scottsdale incident. The conviction was overturned after Epshteyn served his probation.
Bodycam video first obtained by The Arizona Republic of Phoenix shows police speaking separately to Epshteyn and a woman who accused him of repeatedly grabbing her and her sister at a bar called the Bottled Blonde on Oct. 10, 2021 .
NBC News obtained the video through a public records request.
Epshteyn, a lawyer and top adviser to Donald Trump, traveled with the former president on his plane from New Jersey to Washington, DC, last week to face charges that he used “unlawful means” in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
One of the women Epshteyn was accused of groping told police in the bodycam video that the incident started after he approached her group and invited them to his table for free drinks.
At the table, Epshteyn began touching the women “inappropriately,” including grabbing them by the waist and pulling them toward his crotch, the police report said, citing the woman’s story. Epshteyn was 39 at the time.
The woman told police in the video that she left the table but her sister, 23, did not. When she returned to get her sister, she was “crying and upset” and told her that Epshteyn grabbed her and pulled her to him when she tried to leave.
Asked to describe the man, the woman in the video said he was “ugly” and that he was wearing a “white Ralph Lauren polo”, adding that he looked like a “fat Tony Soprano”.
The bodycam video shows Epshteyn wearing shorts and a polo shirt while handcuffed as he wonders why he is being arrested.
“All night long he touched me and my sister, especially my sister. He kind of cornered her and grabbed her and just made her super uncomfortable by touching her after we immediately told him not to touch her again,” the woman said, according to the video.
“It’s not cool what he’s doing,” said the woman, whose name is withholding NBC News due to the nature of the allegations.
“I don’t want it to happen to anyone else here,” she added, calling Epshteyn’s behavior “creepy.”
Epshteyn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday evening.
Police’s original video blurred the identities of the women and some other people at the scene.
The sister told police she did not want to talk to them or press charges and that she “just wanted to go home,” the police report said.
Before being read his rights, “Boris made several spontaneous unsolicited statements that he had done nothing wrong and had never touched girls,” one of the officers said in the police report.
He was charged with disorderly conduct, harassment, attempted sexual assault and assault. The final three charges were later dismissed and he pleaded guilty to the December 2021 disorderly conduct charge. He was sentenced to probation and had his conviction overturned a year later, court documents show.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
