The man who vandalized Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2018 was bailed out by the person who’d committed identical crime two years earlier.
Back in 2018, then-24-year-old Austin Clay took a pickax he’d hidden inside a guitar case and destroyed Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and then called the LAPD himself to report his crime.
According to the officer who took the call, Clay signed off with a casual “see you soon” before turning himself in at the Beverly Hills police station about an hour later.
A familiar face steps in
Clay was held on a $20,000 bond. TMZ reported at the time that his bail was posted by James Otis, who had attacked Trump’s star two years earlier, in 2016, just days before Trump’s first presidential election win over Hillary Clinton.
Otis had dressed as a construction worker and took a sledgehammer to the star in broad daylight. For his part in that crime, Otis pleaded no contest, was sentenced to three years probation, and paid a $4,400 fine.
As an heir to the Otis elevator fortune, covering the bond wasn’t much of a financial stretch for him. He didn’t stop there either, offering to pay for Clay’s legal fees as well, and saying he believed in the younger man’s cause. He even said he was looking forward to meeting Clay once he was released.
Trump’s Hollywood star has become something of a recurring target since his 2016 election win, vandalized at least half a dozen times over the past decade. The most recent attack happened as recently as this January.
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