Trump 'retribution' official accused of assaulting Greenland envoy during elevator ride

A Trump administration official pushing for "retribution" against the president's enemies was formally accused of committing assault inside a State Department elevator.

Gavin Wax, chief of staff to the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, is under formal investigation after a colleague filed a complaint accusing him of issuing a physical threat and shoving him inside an elevator at the agency's Washington headquarters, the Daily Mail reported.

The State Department's Office of Special Investigations has opened a probe, the Daily Mail reported. A source told the Daily Mail the case could be referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.

Ali Motamedi, a special assistant to the U.S. special envoy to Greenland, says Wax confronted him in early July inside a basement elevator at the Harry S. Truman Building — the State Department's Washington headquarters — placing a hand on his chest as he delivered a threat.

"If you ever talk s— about me or my family again, I will beat the f— out of you," Wax allegedly said, according to the complaint obtained by the Daily Mail.

"He then forcefully pushed me before turning around and reentering the elevator," Motamedi wrote.

"For the record, I do not know what Mr. Wax was referring to with respect to his allegation that I had spoken about him or his family," Motamedi wrote in his complaint.

The State Department declined to address the specifics, telling the Daily Mail, "We do not comment on internal personnel matters."

A source told the Daily Mail the agency's own security cameras should have captured the encounter.

"I do believe that there is video evidence of this," the source said, noting the building has "multiple cameras, both inside and outside of any elevator…"

A separate source told the Daily Mail there is no video or eyewitness evidence of physical violence.

"I would imagine that most people would be terminated for this sort of engagement," a source told the Daily Mail, adding the physical nature of the allegation takes it beyond routine personnel discipline.

Sources inside the investigating office told the Daily Mail the case has moved unusually slowly, with concern that Wax "has the ear of Donald Trump." Another source pushed back, saying, "A lot of people claim to have a relationship with Trump and don't."

It is the second time a fellow Trump official has accused Wax of threatening behavior in a signed document. Last October, Michael Bartels, a senior adviser at the Small Business Administration, signed a notarized affidavit saying Wax demanded he hand over a private Telegram chat log and threatened his professional standing when he refused, the Daily Mail reported. Wax denied being the source of a related leak and faced no known consequences.

Wax spent six years as president of the New York Young Republican Club — the first Young Republican chapter to endorse Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, the Daily Mail reported. At the club's 2023 annual dinner, with President Donald Trump in the audience, Wax told supporters a reckoning was coming.

"Once President Trump is back in office, we won't be playing nice anymore. It will be a time for retribution," he said, according to Politico.

"Let me especially thank your president Gavin Wax," Trump said at the club's December 2023 gala, the Daily Mail reported.

"I've heard he's a very abrasive and difficult personality," a State Department source told the Daily Mail of Wax's reputation inside the building.