Co-founder of Students for Trump arrested on domestic violence charges

The co-founder of the group Students for Trump was arrested on Tuesday on domestic violence charges.Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police Department arrested Ryan Fournier, 30, and charged him with simple assault and threats to do bodily harm, Defector first reported.According to arrest documents, the alleged incident took place on Monday night at a luxury apartment complex in Washington DC. Speaking to authorities, an unnamed victim stated she was visiting Fournier – who she had allegedly been dating for two months – when she found him on the floor, “apparently intoxicated”.When she tried to wake him up, Fournier allegedly “started swinging his fists at her and struck her in the face with a closed fist two or three times”, according to the victim, who claimed Fournier had a knife at his side but did not point or use it against her. The victim also alleged that Fournier said: “I’ll kill everyone here.”In an affidavit, a witness who described himself as Fournier’s roommate said when he heard the victim try to wake Fournier, he allegedly screamed: “Don’t touch me, woman!”, “Do you want me to crush your head in with this lamp?”“[Witness] returned to the office where [Fournier] was swinging a handheld vacuum around, screaming at [Victim]. [Witness] got between the two attempting to separate both parties. [Witness] said that he went to the bathroom and heard [Fournier] yelling, ‘Do you want to die today?’ [Victim] ran into the bathroom, and according to [Witness], ‘looked like she had been punched in the face.’ [Witness] called 911, and [Fournier] left the apartment, during this time [Victim] said to [Witness], ‘Don’t let him stab me,’” the affidavit continued.The Guardian has approached the Metropolitan Police Department for comment.After his arrest, Fournier entered a not guilty plea during Tuesday’s arraignment on misdemeanor charges. The judge issued a pretrial no-contact order and a status hearing has been set for 7 July.In November 2023, Fournier was arrested in North Carolina on domestic violence charges after he was accused of assaulting his then-girlfriend by “grabbing her right arm and striking her in the forehead” with a handgun, according to court documents at the time.His charges, including domestic assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon, were dismissed several weeks later.According to his website, Fournier describes himself as a commentator and podcast host. After the death of Charlie Kirk – whose organization, Turning Point USA, acquired the leasing rights to the Students for Trump web domain and social media accounts in 2019 – Fournier falsely accused Cindy Rehberg, a Wisconsin principal, of celebrating Kirk’s death, prompting a wave of death threats against her.He later retracted the claim on X, writing: “We must continue exposing individuals mocking Charlie Kirk’s death, but accuracy is critical.”