For months, Kellyanne Conway’s growing conflict with her 16-year-old daughter, Claudia, has played out online, with the outspoken teen posting TikTok videos showing them arguing over her mother’s proactive role in Donald Trump’s administration, but also depicting her mother lashing out at her with insults and possibly worse.
The videos have taken an especially disturbing turn in recent weeks, with Claudia last week accusing her mother of being “physically, mentally, and emotionally abusive,” Vox reported. Her TikToks appeared to show Kellyanne Conway shouting, cursing frequently, belittling, and seemingly hitting her daughter.
Now, the conflict has reportedly drawn the attention of police and other authorities after a topless photo of Claudia was reportedly posted to Kellyanne Conway’s official Twitter account. The photo was posted as a fleet, Twitter’s version of Instagram stories. The posts automatically expire after 24 hours, but many users saw the photo and alerted Twitter and Claudia herself.
Police in the Conways’ hometown of Alpine, New Jersey confirmed to the New York Post that they were investigating the photo, which would appear to violate Twitter’s “zero-tolerance child-sexual-exploitation policy,” New York magazine reported. Possession of child sexual abuse images also is illegal in New Jersey and punishable by up to five years in prison and being added to a sex offender registry, BuzzFeed News reported.
“An investigation is being conducted. No additional information can be released,” an officer with the Alpine police told the New York Post. Four police officers showed up at the Conway mansion on Tuesday morning and spent about an hour inside before leaving, the Post added.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Children and Families told Buzzfeed News that the agency is “looking into all the concerns around the incident,” but the agency issued a follow-up statement saying it was “unable to confirm any investigations or pending investigations regarding alleged child abuse or neglect.”
Shortly after the graphic photo was posted, Claudia Conway told her 1.6 million TikTok followers that she was “literally at a loss for words.” She said her mother was “going to (expletive) jail” and explained her mom may have gotten ahold of the photo during one of their earlier fights when her phone was confiscated. Claudia said she assumed her mother took the photo “to use against me one day,” but also didn’t think her mother posted it deliberately.
On Tuesday, just as public outcry grew for authorities to intervene on her behalf and as hashtags, such as #SaveClaudiaConway and #JusticeforClaudia, went viral, Claudia seemed to walk back some of her more incendiary comments against her mother.
In a TikTok video she recorded and was shared by her father, George Conway, a Republican attorney and prominent Trump critic, Claudia said “I know that my mom would never, ever post anything to hurt me like that intentionally, and I do believe she was hacked.”
source: mercurynews