Exclusive: RFK Jr. Campaign Operative Charged With Assault For Allegedly Choking, Punching Woman

AP Photo/Jose Juarez

A key political operative on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign was charged with assault after allegedly choking and punching a woman in New York early Saturday morning.

Trent Pool, who serves as a paid consultant on the long-shot independent campaign and has been leading the effort to get Kennedy on the ballot in all 50 states, was charged with assault and criminal obstruction of breathing.

According to an NYPD spokesperson, a little after 5 a.m. on Saturday morning Pool was engaged in a “verbal dispute” with a 25-year-old woman at the ritzy Soho Grand hotel in downtown Manhattan.

Police said the woman reported that Pool “wrapped his hand around her neck making it hard for her to breath and then struck her in the face with a closed fist, causing pain.”

The woman declined medical attention, and Pool was arrested without incident.

The Kennedy campaign said in a statement: “Trent is a contractor. He tells us that the alleged incident never occurred.”

Pool, a petition circulator, is running Kennedy’s ballot access fight alongside the campaign’s ballot access director Nicholas Brana.

Pool’s firm, Accelevate 2020, which specializes in ballot access, petition and general campaign consulting, is being paid by the Kennedy campaign. Another ballot access firm run by Pool, Public Appeal, is also being paid by a super PAC supporting Kennedy, FEC reports show.

The arrest in New York was not his first run-in with the law this year. In February, Pool was arrested for fourth-degree assault in Seattle, Washington, a spokesperson for SPD confirmed.

The Kennedy campaign and Pool did not respond to immediate requests for comment.