A senior Trump administration official is under investigation by the State Department following an alleged assault incident in an elevator at the agency's Washington headquarters in early July. Gavin Wax, 32, chief of staff to the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, is accused of threatening and forcefully pushing Ali Motamedi, a special assistant to the US special envoy to Greenland. The incident has become the subject of an internal investigation by the State Department's Office of Special Investigations, with both officials offering fundamentally different accounts of what transpired.

The disputed encounter occurred when Motamedi boarded an elevator and encountered Wax with a third witness present. Motamedi's formal complaint describes an unprovoked physical altercation involving a threat, whilst sources supporting Wax claim the conversation began civilly over expense reimbursements before becoming hostile due to Motamedi's alleged pattern of antisemitic remarks about Wax's Jewish heritage. The third witness reportedly corroborated Wax's account during a Diplomatic Security review, denying that physical contact or threats occurred, though sources sympathetic to Motamedi reject the antisemitism allegations entirely. Neither official has commented publicly on the matter.