Lauren Boebert Denies Punching Ex-Husband in Public, Threatens to Sue

Police in Silt, Colorado, are currently investigating a physical altercation between Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) and her ex, Jayson Boebert, at a restaurant on Saturday night. Police arrived on the scene after Jayson reportedly called 911 claiming he was a “victim of domestic violence” and that Boebert had punched him twice in the face—a claim Boebert denies. But no one was arrested, and Jayson told the Daily Beast on Sunday that he “made a mistake.”

An anti-Boebert super PAC called “American Muckrakers” first shared news of the altercation on Twitter on Saturday night, claiming Boebert “punched her ex-husband Jayson in the nose 2 times and then continued to beat him up. Then she called the cops on him. … Jayson has a witness.” Speaking to the Daily Beast, Jayson characterized this tweet as accurate. But an aide to Boebert offered a fairly detailed account of Boebert’s side of the story that sharply contradicts these claims.

According to Boebert’s unnamed aide, earlier on Saturday, the conflict between her and Jayson began when she came to pick up their son from his home. The aide claims that when Jayson tried to hug Boebert, she had to keep him back with a hand on his chest. Later that day he called to apologize for the incident and asked to meet in person. Boebert agreed, but at the restaurant, the aide says Jayson immediately began “being disrespectful,” “being an asshole,” and getting “lewd,” leading to what the Daily Beast describes as “a physical altercation of indeterminate severity.” When Jayson moved toward Boebert, she thought he was trying to grab her and “put her hand in his face, put her hand on his nose” as an act of self-defense, per the aide. Both the aide and Boebert maintain that she did not punch him.

“This is a sad situation for all that keeps escalating and another reason I’m moving,” Boebert said in a statement provided to the local news station KUSA. She appears to be referencing her recent decision to run for reelection in a different, more conservative district of Colorado where she has a better chance of winning. (Boebert won reelection in 2022 by just 500 votes.) “I didn’t punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested,” she said. “I will be consulting with my lawyer about the false claims he made against me and evaluate all of my legal options.”

Jayson told the Daily Beast on Sunday that he and Boebert “both overreacted.” He continued, “I only want what’s best for [the] boys and I still love her very much. We both share some hurt deep down inside … It seems we just keep pushing each other further apart.” In an interview with the Denver Post, also from Sunday, Jayson claimed he told police he did not want to press charges. “I don’t want nothing to happen,” he said. “Her and I were working through a difficult conversation.”

In April, Boebert filed for divorce after 17 years of marriage to Jayson, and The Colorado Sun reported that when Jayson was served divorce papers on April 25, the process server said Jayson “was extremely angry,” accused the process server of trespassing, and appeared to be cleaning his gun and drinking beer. Jayson denied this.

The Saturday night incident isn’t the Boeberts’ first run-in with law enforcement over a reported domestic dispute. In May, Insider reported that in December 2022 the couple’s son called the police alleging that Jayson had been “throwing” him around the house. “He just does this to me so much,” their son said in audio of the call obtained by Insider. Shortly after that call, the child called 911 again to take back his claim, and gave the phone to the Congresswoman who told the operator her son “doesn’t need help.”

Before that, in 2004, Jayson was arrested and pleaded guilty to public indecency and lewd exposure after exposing himself to two girls at a bowling alley. In her memoir, Boebert said she was proud of how Jayson handled the criminal charges because he “needed the alcohol and anger management classes that came with the plea deal.” Boebert and Jayson were both arrested for separate incidents of alleged domestic violence toward each other that same year: A month after the alleged flashing incident at the bowling alley in 2004, Jayson was arrested for a domestic violence charge, and a few months later, Boebert faced charges for third-degree assault and criminal mischief. As recent as the summer of 2022, the Boeberts’ neighbors called the police on Jayson and accused him of threatening them and running over their mailbox while intoxicated.