Singer and longtime Trump supporter Joy Villa filed a police report this week accusing ex–Trump campaign manager Cory Lewandowski of sexually assaulting her at a party late last month. Conservatives aren’t offering the pop star much support, however.
Villa, who made headlines after sporting a glitzy “Make America Great Again” dress at the Grammy Awards earlier this year, said she was celebrating the president’s very first year in office at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. when Lewandowski slapped her “violently, hard enough to hurt me” on the buttocks. In an interview with Politico, Villa said she objected to Lewandowski’s advances, but he dismissed her and slapped her butt again.
It was the first time she and the former campaign aide had ever met, she said, and the two decided to pose for a photo together before the incident.
“I’m wearing this silver suit and stretchy pants, and after the photo, he smacks my ass really hard,” Villa said of the Nov. 28, encounter. ” … It was completely demeaning and shocking.”
After she threatened to report him for sexual assault, Lewandowski reportedly said, “Go ahead, I work in the private sector.”
https://twitter.com/Joy_Villa/status/944420273679454209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F12%2F27%2Fus%2Fjoy-villa-corey-lewandowski.html
The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed Wednesday, Dec. 27, that a sexual assault report matching the case number Villa provided was filed on Sunday, The New York Times reported. A department spokesman said the matter is under investigation and no one has been charged as of yet.
Words of support for Villa have been few and far between from fellow Trumpsters, however, despite the string of sexual assault accusations levied against powerful men in the political, entertainment and tech industries in recent months. Conservative critics took to Twitter this week to blast Villa for the her “false” allegation against Lewandowski, calling her everything from a “hypocrite” to a “Scientologist fraud.”
Do not believe Joy Villa’s allegations against @CLewandowski_ .
Her former manager implied, directly to me, that she’s working against the #MAGA agenda and its loyalists.
According to him, she gets her marching orders from the Church of Scientology.
She’s a fraud. https://t.co/IvzAenHjBH
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/Corrynmb/status/946226103009665024
https://twitter.com/zclove2bme/status/946390582196424705
https://twitter.com/HomoMuslim/status/946392694577876992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fatlantablackstar.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost-new.php
I hope little miss attention whore knows that if she’s lying to the court with filing this she could end up in jail. Hope your listening to people who also aren’t under investigation there Miss joy.
— Kaya Jones (@KayaJones) December 26, 2017
As for Lewandowski, the fired Trump aide has refused to address the singer’s allegations against him. He made a recent appearance on Charles Payne’s show on the Fox Business Network where he was asked why he thought Villa would make such a claim.
“That’s a question for her. I’m not here to speak for Joy,” he responded. “What I am going to do is to let the process play forward just as you did when you were accused of sexual harassment in your own case.”
This isn’t the first time Lewandowski has been accused of assault. In March 2016, he was charged with misdemeanor battery after a journalist accused him of forcibly grabbing her when she approached him at a news conference. That charge was ultimately dropped.