Woman was asked to tell police a Trump activist’s girlfriend attacked him. He allegedly threatened to kill her when she refused

Prosecutors said a woman who was inside Ryan Fournier’s apartment on June 8 was asked to phone the police and say his girlfriend had been the attacker. According to The Daily Mail, the September 1 court filing states she declined because she had not been there during the May incident and did not want to give officers false information.

According to that filing from the D.C. attorney’s office, Fournier then told her that if she said anything negative about him, he could use his political connections to have her deported or have someone kill her. He also asked her to put a social media post online calling the girlfriend crazy and a prostitute, the documents say.

Fournier, 30, co-founded Students for Trump and has about a million followers on X. Prosecutors described the June 8 exchange as part of an effort to get other people to back a self-defense version of events after his arrest in May.

Filing describes alleged pressure on people who were not at the May incident

The same filing says Fournier was passed out drunk on the floor of his downtown Washington apartment on the night of May 25 when his girlfriend of two months tried to wake him. Prosecutors alleged he punched her in the arms, grabbed her hair, knocked her down, climbed on top of her, and hit her in the face at least twice.

The case is among several recent incidents involving alleged threats tied to political tensions, such as when a Black woman who said she loves Donald Trump and ICE allegedly told a Hispanic driver to get out of her country. 

He then allegedly pulled out a switchblade and held it at his side. “You’re going to die tonight,” he allegedly told her, the court document states. Officers were called in the early hours of May 26 and arrested him on misdemeanor charges of simple assault and attempted threats to do bodily harm.

An arrest affidavit said he shouted “I’ll kill everyone here” and “Do you want me to crush your head with this lamp?” while a witness watched him swing a handheld vacuum around the room. He was released that day on his own recognizance and ordered to stay away from the woman and have no contact with her.

The filing says she received two text messages from his phone that same day telling her she had been the one hitting him. Prosecutors treated those messages as the opening of a self-defense account he later tried to have others repeat. Political tensions in North Carolina have surfaced in various contexts, such as when a dad pulled his son from a public school over alleged mocking of his beliefs. 

On June 8 an associate was at the apartment with Fournier and three other people when he made the request that she call police and post on social media, according to the filing. After she refused, he allegedly yelled at another man there and said that unless that man told police the girlfriend had been the aggressor, Fournier would have him deported or ruin his career. The filing states that man had not been in the apartment during the May incident either.

Prosecutors said Fournier then walked up to the woman with what she believed was an M-16 rifle, later identified as a replica, threw it to her, and said they wanted a photo of her holding it. She waited about 20 minutes before trying to leave because she feared he would hurt her if she left immediately. He then told her she could not go, allegedly grabbed her wrists, pushed her onto a bed, and pinned her with his knee in her midsection until she got free, the filing claims.

Secret Service agents arrested Fournier outside his building four days later for allegedly violating the stay-away order by texting the woman he is accused of assaulting. His roommate, Jordan Daley, was taken into custody at the same time and charged with allegedly posing as a Secret Service agent assigned to protect Fournier. Agents reported finding a fake badge in the apartment.

A July 1 indictment charged Fournier with two felony counts of threatening to kidnap or injure a person, two felony counts of obstruction of justice, one felony contempt count for allegedly breaking the no-contact order, and two misdemeanor simple assault counts. A judge ordered him held without bond the following day. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Trial is set for October 8 before D.C. Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean. Prosecutors set a September 11 deadline for a plea offer made last month.

The filing also cites a woman who dated Fournier for years until the relationship ended in 2025. She told investigators he pointed a firearm at her in 2020 and that she photographed him doing it. Prosecutors included a grainy image they identified as Fournier with a gun raised toward the camera.

She described being hit in the face with a glass object in the spring of 2021, leaving a scar, and being struck in the head with a drinking glass about a year later. That second episode cut Fournier’s hand badly enough that he needed stitches, the filing says. Police were also called to a Florida hotel after she said he struck her with an object and left a large bruise on her head.

Fournier was arrested in November 2023 in Johnston County, North Carolina, and charged with assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon after he was accused of grabbing her arm and hitting her in the forehead with a 9mm pistol. North Carolina prosecutors dropped those charges the next month. The new filing says he told police in that investigation that he hit her in the head with the gun, but insisted he was defending himself.

Prosecutors have asked the judge to allow the jury to hear those earlier accounts, arguing that when police become involved, Fournier blames the other person and claims self-defense. Judge McLean has not ruled on the request. Fournier’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. His X account continued posting as of Friday, even though he has been held at the D.C. jail since early July.