The rightwing US congresswoman Lauren Boebert is denying allegations that she punched her ex-husband in the face in public after police in Colorado were reportedly called out to an encounter involving the pair on Saturday night at a restaurant.
The incident was first reported by the Daily Beast. The news site said that Jayson Boebert called police claiming that he was a “victim of domestic violence”. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Jayson Boebert alleged that the congresswoman had “punched” him in the face several times. He claimed to have a witness to the events.
“I didn’t punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested,” Boebert said in a statement provided to Kyle Clark, a reporter with the television station KUSA. Calling Saturday night’s events “a sad situation for all that keeps escalating”, she added: “I will be consulting with my lawyer about the false claims he made against me and evaluate all of my legal options.”
The Denver Gazette reporter Carol McKinley had earlier reported that police in Silt, Colorado, had been called out to a confrontation between Lauren and Jayson Boebert at the local Miner’s Claim restaurant on Saturday evening, citing information from the city’s police chief. The chief, Mike Kite, said there had not been any arrests immediately despite reports that Lauren Boebert had punched Jayson Boebert, but investigators were looking for any relevant video, McKinley reported.
In an interview with the Denver Post, Jayson Boebert said he told police he did not want to press charges. “I don’t want nothing to happen,” Jayson Boebert said. “Her and I were working through a difficult conversation.”
In her statement, Lauren Boebert reiterated that the situation with her and Jayson Boebert was “another reason” for her 27 December 2023 announcement that she intended to relocate from Colorado’s third congressional district to the fourth and seek a third term in Congress there.
Boebert, 37, won a second term in Congress after defeating her Democratic challenger, Adam Frisch, by just 546 votes. Frisch signaled his intent to challenge Boebert again during the 2024 election cycle and had raised $7.7m to his Republican opponent’s $2.4m before she indicated she would seek a new term in another district rather than face a rematch.
The congresswoman filed for divorce in May from her husband, with whom she has four sons, citing “irreconcilable differences”.
In September, Boebert landed in scandal after she and a man with whom she was on a date were kicked out of a performance of the stage production Beetlejuice in Denver for inappropriate behavior, including vaping, recording and groping each other. She later issued a statement of apology, saying: “I simply fell short of my values.”
Boebert’s party has a narrow majority in their chamber and is in the minority in the Senate. The Ohio congressman Bill Johnson’s resignation will leave 219 Republicans when it takes effect on 21 January, meaning any measure favored by the party that loses votes from two of its members will not pass.
