A donor to Donald J. Trump has accused the former president’s longtime political adviser Corey Lewandowski of making unwanted sexual advances and touching her inappropriately at a dinner in Las Vegas on Sunday night.
The donor, Trashelle Odom, made the allegations about Mr. Lewandowski in a statement that was first reported on Wednesday by Politico and that was later provided to The New York Times.
“He repeatedly touched me inappropriately, said vile and disgusting things to me, stalked me, and made me feel violated and fearful,” she said in the statement about the dinner. “I am coming forward because he needs to be held accountable.”
Mrs. Odom was among a small group of people at the dinner at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, part of an event held by the Victoria’s Voice Foundation, which focuses on fighting drug addiction. Mrs. Odom sat next to Mr. Lewandowski, who leads Mr. Trump’s super PAC. At the event, she said in the statement, Mr. Lewandowski “bragged multiple times about how powerful he is” and “claimed he controls the former president.”
According to the Odom family lawyer, who declined to be identified, Mr. Lewandowski repeatedly touched Mrs. Odom’s leg and her backside, grew aggressive at various points and threw a drink at her when she made clear she was rebuffing him. In her statement, Mrs. Odom said she had feared for her safety.
Her husband, John Odom, an Idaho businessman, said in a statement that the family was considering legal options. Mr. and Mrs. Odom would not speak directly to a reporter about the allegations, and they have not yet filed a complaint with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Mr. Lewandowski did not comment on the allegations, and his Las Vegas-based lawyer, David Z. Chesnoff, said only that “accusations and rumor appear to be morphing by the minute and we will not dignify them with a further response.”
One person who attended the dinner, who declined to be identified for fear of retribution, told The Times that Mrs. Odom’s account was accurate.
Mr. Trump, who often avoids direct interpersonal confrontation, has long been known to have a soft spot for Mr. Lewandowski, and his aides did not respond to an email on Wednesday seeking comment on the Las Vegas encounter and asking whether Mr. Lewandowski would remain at the super PAC.
Also at the dinner in Las Vegas was Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, whom Mr. Lewandowski has been advising for many months.
Mr. Lewandowski was Mr. Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016, but far from his last. He was fired in June 2016 after conflicts with Mr. Trump’s children and a series of incidents that the Trump family worried had cast the candidate in a negative light.
Earlier that year, Mr. Lewandowski was accused by Michelle Fields, at the time a reporter for the right-wing website Breitbart, of forcibly yanking her away from the candidate after a news conference in Florida. Despite video of the incident, Mr. Lewandowski denied that anything inappropriate had happened, and Mr. Trump aggressively defended him and denounced the news media’s coverage of Ms. Fields’s allegation.
And in November 2017, a Trump supporter and singer named Joy Villa filed a complaint stating that Mr. Lewandowski had slapped her on the buttocks during a party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. It is unclear what became of that complaint.
For months, several of Mr. Trump’s advisers have privately complained that Mr. Lewandowski’s connections with the super PAC and with Mr. Trump’s political orbit have helped him with his other clients, including Ms. Noem. With Mr. Trump out of office, most of his advisers now have clients outside his immediate world.
