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Pro-Trump influencer charged over 'racist' assault

News imageBritish Transport Police A CCTV image showing a tall man with brown hair wearing wearing a smart dark blue jacket, gesturing forward. He is with a woman with long, blonde hair British Transport Police
Melissa Rein Lively and Philipp Ostermann have been charged in relation to an incident on 11 October

A prominent Donald Trump supporter and PR executive has been charged with assault after an alleged racist incident at Bond Street Underground station in central London.

British Transport Police said a woman reported she was racially abused and had her hair grabbed as she entered the station with her sister and two young children at 19:30 BST on 11 October.

US national Melissa Rein Lively, 40 - a "Maga" (make America great again) influencer - has been charged with assault by beating. Her partner, German national Philipp Ostermann, 37, has been charged with three public order offences, two of them racially aggravated.

The pair are due before Westminster Magistrates' Court on 19 May.

It was alleged that a man shouted racial abuse at the victim and a woman grabbed her hair.

It was also reported that pepper spray may have been used.

Rein Lively runs an "anti-woke" PR firm America First Public Relations, while Ostermann is the associate director of Aequita, a private equity firm based in Munich.

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