A MAGA influencer who assaulted a woman at a London tube station has claimed police deliberately targeted her because of her ties to Donald Trump. Melissa Rein Lively pulled a woman's hair in a 'forceful manner' at Bond Street Underground station last October after allegedly stumbling into a pushchair carrying a child.
The 40-year-old accepted a conditional caution and the assault by beating charge against her was withdrawn at Westminster Magistrates' Court. Lively, founder of the world's first 'anti-woke' PR agency, also agreed to pay the victim £910 in compensation. Her partner, Philipp Ostermann, is accused of racially abusing two sisters at the station, allegedly saying: 'You bloody Indians, watch where you're going, you shouldn't be here.'
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Lively claimed the incident has 'destroyed her reputation' and that she was targeted by British Transport Police for being a friend of Trump and for being on the shortlist to become his official press spokeswoman. 'I feel like there was pressure (within the police) to turn this into a symbolic or politically-charged case,' she said. 'In Britain now there is two-tier policing, two-tier justice.'
Lively says she plans to sue the British Transport Police, alleging they pressed charges due to her public support for Trump's MAGA agenda. She challenged the police account, claiming she believed the sisters were part of a criminal gang trying to rob her, and that CCTV footage will support her version. She also claimed her German fiancé's poor English means he would never use colloquial terms like 'bloody.'
Ostermann was freed on unconditional bail and is due to appear at City of London Magistrates' Court on November 17 for trial.
