(José Niño, Headline USA) A senior Trump appointee stands accused of pushing a State Department colleague and vowing to beat him inside the agency’s Washington headquarters, according to a formal complaint the Daily Mail obtained.
Ali Motamedi, a special assistant to the U.S. special envoy to Greenland, says Gavin Wax confronted him in early July beside a sixth floor elevator bank inside the Harry S Truman Building. Wax, 32, holds the chief of staff post under the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. A department source says investigators now treat it as an assault case.
Wax pressed a hand to his chest, Motamedi recounts, and told him, “If you ever talk s*** about me or my family again, I will beat the f*** out of you.” The complaint continues, “He then forcefully pushed me before turning around and reentering the elevator.”
Disgraced former chairman of the NY YRs and prominent leaker Gavin Wax reportedly assaulted and threatened a fellow State Department employee, according to an internal email obtained by the Daily Mail.
Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/v70Oumwamw
— AF Post (@AFpost) July 30, 2026
Wax’s allies describe the encounter differently. One source traced the conversation to dinner receipts and expense reimbursements, and said it soured only after Motamedi mocked Wax’s Jewish background and cast doubt on his wife’s Catholic faith, citing a “pre-existing animus.” A source in Motamedi’s corner denied all of it, insisting he never raised Wax’s background anywhere. Motamedi himself 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.”
Special adviser Charles Yockey shared that elevator and is “the only real witness who saw what transpired,” one official said. Wax’s camp says Yockey assured Diplomatic Security nobody got touched or threatened. Sources also disagree about what security cameras recorded. A department official responded only, “We do not comment on internal personnel matters.”
The Office of Special Investigations now handles the file. One official cautioned the case may bypass ordinary procedure because Wax “has the ear of Donald Trump.” A colleague rejected that, replying, ‘A lot of people claim to have a relationship with Trump and don’t.’ Motamedi reports to Gov. Jeff Landry, R-La., whom Trump tapped as special envoy to Greenland.
A similar statement surfaced a year ago. Small Business Administration senior adviser Michael Bartels attested in a notarized affidavit that Wax pressured him in a phone call to release the entire Telegram chat log, and “threatened my professional standing” by raising the possibility of legal action over an alleged NDA breach.
Wax rejected claims he leaked the Young Republican messages to Politico and kept his standing. He had run the New York Young Republican Club from 2019 to 2025 before joining the FCC as chief of staff to Commissioner Nathan Simington in April 2025—a role he held until June—then moved to the State Department in August 2025 as chief of staff to acting Under Secretary Darren Beattie.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
