Kelley Paul: We Haven’t Spoken To Rand’s Alleged Attacker In A Decade

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2016, file photo, Kelley Paul, wife of Republican Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, watches him speak to supporters during a caucus night rally at the Scottish Rite Consistory in Des Moines, Iowa. Kelley P... FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2016, file photo, Kelley Paul, wife of Republican Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, watches him speak to supporters during a caucus night rally at the Scottish Rite Consistory in Des Moines, Iowa. Kelley Paul writes in an essay published by CNN on Nov. 22, 2017, that her husband hasn’t taken a single breath without pain since what she calls “a deliberate, blindside attack” by the family’s Kentucky neighbor earlier this month. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File) MORE LESS
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Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) wife, Kelley Paul, said her family hasn’t spoken to the neighbor who allegedly attacked her husband in a decade, “other than a casual wave from the car.”

That revelation from Kelley Paul, in an op-ed for CNN published Wednesday, pokes holes in the theory that the alleged assault was the result of an ongoing trivial dispute between the two neighbors.

“The fact is, neither Rand nor I have spoken to the attacker in 10 years – since before his wife and children moved away. … Nobody in our family has, nor have we communicated with anyone in his family,” she said of Rene Boucher, a retired anesthesiologist who was arrested and charged with assault. “With Rand’s travel to D.C. in the last seven years, he has rarely seen this man at all.”

She went on to call out the media for reporting that there was any type of alleged dispute between her husband and Boucher, saying “the only ‘dispute’ existed solely in the attacker’s trouble mind.” She called the incident, which left Rand Paul with six broken ribs, pleural effusion and pneumonia in his damaged lung, a “deliberate, blindside attack.”

“Despite this, he refused to give in to the pain and was determined to fly back to Washington last week to do his job,” she said. “This has been a terrible experience; made worse by the media’s gleeful attempts to blame Rand for it, ridiculing him for everything from mowing his own lawn to composting.”

Reports of the motive behind Boucher’s alleged attack have been contradictory. Some neighbors have told reporters that the pair have been feuding for years over yard waste; others have reported that the attack was politically motivated. That claim was disputed by Boucher’s lawyer when Boucher pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge after he was arrested.

Rand Paul himself appeared to mock the stories about there being a neighborly dispute  between himself and Boucher when he tweeted two articles from conservative outlets that cite neighbors saying the alleged assault was not the result of a landscaping disagreement.

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