Andrew James Ruder, 37, of Charleston, South Carolina, was arrested for simple assault by the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department on Saturday for allegedly hitting and choking a man who attended a pro-President Donald Trump event at the Willard International Hotel, according to a police report obtained by Breitbart News and a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department.
Jonathan Gilliam, a retired Navy SEAL and former FBI special agent who was a speaker at the Women for America First event, is named as the victim of the alleged assault in the police report.
Gilliam told Breitbart News that guests at a dinner party in a ballroom next to the WFAF event had been verbally attacking guests at the event all evening, including calling them Nazis and trying to disrupt the event inside the private venue and in the hallways and restrooms of the hotel.
At the conclusion of the event, Gilliam was escorting some guests out when Ruder and another man, who was not named in the police report because he was not arrested, allegedly began threatening the group.
The police report said Ruder used “Personal Weapons (Hands / Feet)” in the attack:
On listed date time and location S-1 lunged in a aggressive manner towards V-1 in which S-2 joined and assaulted V-1 by grabbing his neck causing the listed injury. V-1 was able to defend himself and strike S-1 on the face with a closed fist. S-1 was placed under arrest and transported to the Second District for processing.
Breitbart News was unable to reach Ruder, whom witnesses said attended the wedding party for Jessica Tvelia and Dennis O’Brien.
O’Brien is listed as Director of Operations for the Boeing Company’s Government Operations office in Washington, DC, on the company’s website:
Prior to joining Boeing, O’Brien served as the Deputy CEO for Finance and Administration at the Democratic National Convention Committee in Philadelphia, PA, where he managed finance, compliance, human resources, administration and general business services for the 2016 national party convention.
As Breitbart News reported, approximately 200 women attended the Women for America First event — titled a Very MAGA Holiday Weekend — at the Willard. The alleged “high-profile Democrat wedding” took place in an adjacent ballroom.
Women for America First is a conservative organization that supports Trump and is run by longtime grassroots conservative activist Amy Kremer.
A press release distributed by WFAF late Monday said, in part:
Our event on Saturday evening was rudely disrupted when attendees from a high-profile democrat wedding in the adjacent ballroom repeatedly stalked, harassed, and both verbally and ultimately physically attacked our guests. Throughout the evening, on at least 30 different occasions, our private event was interrupted. One group of our guests trying to locate our event was invited into the room the wedding was being held by a group of women attending the wedding. Once inside, they realized it was the wrong room, but the women told them they should stay because it was a Biden rally and they simply shouldn’t support President Trump. Our guests were repeatedly verbally assaulted with comments such as “is this an actual thing?” “you should be ashamed of yourselves,” “MAGA Trash,” “Nazis” and “C*nts.”
Gilliam tweeted about the incident:
Unfortunately, due to the harassment from Trump haters from an adjacent ball room, and lack of hotel security involvement, an event occurred when myself and others were escorting WFAF women out of the venue. I’m ok, but the future of this country is not!
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Unfortunately, due to the harassment from Trump haters from an adjacent ball room, and lack of hotel security involvement, an event occurred when myself and others were escorting WFAF women out of the venue. I’m ok, but the future of this country is not!— Jonathan T Gilliam (@JGilliam_SEAL) December 16, 2019
“Let it be known that despite the attacks and pushback from those who wish to destroy us, we will continue to stand strong in support of President Trump and the America First Agenda,” the press release said.
Gilliam Police Report by Breitbart News on Scribd
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