A Republican lobbyist currently supporting a Trump aide charged over the Russia probe told Wednesday how he was pepper sprayed and punched by a masked man in his driveway.

Jack Burkman told DailyMail.com he was doused in the face with spray and struck on the head by an unknown assailant who pulled up in a black SUV outside his home at 7:25pm on Tuesday, in what he said was a 'professional hit'.

The attacker then sped off. The lobbyist suffered burns to his face following the attack.

Burkman hosted a fundraiser last month for Rick Gates, 45, a long-time business associate and protégé of Paul Manafort, the man who ran Trump's presidential campaign for several months in 2016 and is also charged by Mueller.

He also launched his own investigation into the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, whose death in 2016 has become the focus of conspiracy theories.

Victim: Jack Burkman (left) said his face was left reddened and swollen after the attack on Tuesday evening in the driveway of his Arlington, VA home, which his public relations firm linked to his support for Rick Gates (right), the ex-Trump campaign aide charged by Robert Mueller

Scene of the crime: Arlington police said they were called to the home after a report of malicious wounding by caustic agent. Nobody has been arrested

Following the attack, Burkman contacted Arlington police and filed a report.

Arlington police said: 'At approximately 7:31 p.m. on January 16, police were dispatched to the report of an assault that had just occurred. Upon arrival, it was determined that as the victim was returning to his residence, he located an unknown dark colored SUV in his driveway.

'The male driver exited the vehicle and sprayed the victim with a caustic substance before fleeing the scene in the vehicle. The victim was treated on scene by medics for minor injuries. The suspect is described as a white male wearing a mask and black jacket. The investigation is ongoing.'

Speaking to DailyMail.com Wednesday, Burkman shared details of the attack.

He said he had left home on foot at 6.45pm to buy dinner at his local Safeway and was returning home around 45 minutes later when it happened.

He said that there was a 'black or dark green' SUV parked in the driveway but that he didn't notice it until it was too late.

'A guy got out with a mask on. I described it to police as a 'bank robber mask' – beige or white, like you might see on Halloween,' Burkman said.

'He gets out, he hits me with pepper spray, he hits me on the head and we have a scuffle. I push him, he pushes me and I run away screaming. Then he gets in the car and goes off.

'I didn't notice the car until it was too late. If I noticed it ten seconds before I could have run away.

'My guess is somebody watched me leave and waited for me to come back. This was a professional hit, I could tell by the car, it was some kind of pristine SUV. The guy knew exactly what he was doing.'

Burkman said that the assailant said nothing other than 'some expletive'. He was hit in the face and the eyes by the spray.

A call was placed to 911 and medics and police attended the scene. He was given a saline solution for his eyes and a test was done to make sure the substance was not an acid or toxin.

A neighbor down the street had caught the tail-end of the attack and police had canvassed the neighbourhood.

Burkman said detectives had some surveillance camera footage which they hoped may be useful and were also pulling the camera footage from the grocery store to see if he had been followed.

'I thought I was going to die. When I saw the mask, then next thing I thought was there would be an automatic weapon and he was going to blow me away.'

Burkman said he had not threats prior to this attack but suggested it may be linked to his work in support of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.

He said: 'This has to be tied to something to I said or did yesterday. For the first time I went to one of the hearings for Gates and Manafort and I sat in the vicinity behind them but I didn't think anybody would notice me but I guess somebody did. And I made statements to the press. Obviously this is related to that.'

Burkman said that he has hired 24-hour armed security for his protection but would not be cowed by the assault.

Link: Rick Gates was deputy to Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman who he will go on trial with later this year. Burkman launched his own investigation into the murder of Seth Rich

He added: 'It doesn't deter me - it redoubles my efforts.'

Arlington Police Department said the official report and photos taken after the attack were not publicly available.

The lobbyist criticized Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who accused Gates of violating her gag order after a pre-recorded message was shown to the gathering at the Holiday Inn in Arlington.

The DC fundraiser, which was sparsely attended, was held to help Gates pay for lawyers to fight the federal charges.

In an order on December 22, Judge Jackson summoned Gates and his lawyers to court to explain why the accused shouldn't be held in contempt for violating her gag order imposed on everyone connected with the case.

Jackson told Gates to explain why 'his reported personal participation in the creation of a fundraising video to be shown to journalists and disseminated on social media, in which, according to multiple press accounts, defendant makes reference to 'the cause' and the goal of 'ensuring that our supporters from across the United States hear our message and stand with us,' would not violate this Court's order'.

In the video, Gates said: 'By being here tonight, you are giving us the tools that we need to fight. And for that I am extremely grateful.'

Gates also seemed to be sensitive to the existence of the gag order in the recording and mentioned it briefly.

'As you may be aware, there is a gag order on the case, so I am not able to talk specifically about the case. However, I can say that because of people like you we will have the resources to fight.'

The judge also said she wanted to understand the 'nature of his relationship, if any, with Burkman, who reportedly publicly characterized the prosecution as 'very unfair' at the gathering. Jackson also said she wanted to know whether Burkman's comments were being made at Gates' direction or that of his counsel.

In the crosshairs: Robert Mueller has already secured guilty pleas from Mike Flynn, the former national security adviser, and Trump campaign aide George Stephanopolous. He is set to question Steve Bannon, the campaign boss and later White House strategist

Gates and Manafort are both under house arrest as they await trial in the case accusing them of money laundering, criminal conspiracy and other charges.

The two were indicted in October following a lengthy investigation that uncovered extensive global banking transactions stemming from their work representing a Ukrainian political party supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mueller's probe has taken down others from the president's campaign and administration, notably extracting guilty pleas and cooperation from former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Mueller's team has also interviewed a raft of current and former White House officials and is set to quiz Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist to the president.

Burkman also has a team of investigators looking into Rich's mysterious death and has said his group has personally examined Rich's computers and found no evidence that there were any contacts between the DNC staffer and Wikileaks.

Burkman runs the Profiling Project, which he describes as 'a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week investigation' into the Seth Rich case. His team includes two investigators, a forensic psychologist, and volunteers.

In May, he told DailyMail.com: 'We did a very thorough search of all of that stuff, the family made these things available a long time ago. And we didn't find anything solid.'

He said if such emails exist they should be made public so they can be reviewed by the family's investigators.

Burkman has also been able to review surveillance footage of the murder that police obtained from a local grocery store. He said the grainy video shows two people standing near Rich, a scuffle, and Rich falling to the ground.

He said he doubts the murder was a botched robbery, noting that nothing was stolen from Rich. He also said he has not ruled out possible connections between Rich and Wikileaks, but has yet to see any evidence supporting this.

According to Burkman, his team is currently looking into the theory that Russian agents may have been behind Rich's death.

'We had [a former U.S. intelligence officer] approach us and say that the Russians did it. So we're looking into connections between Seth and the Russians. We, too, are looking into connections between Seth and Wikileaks, we haven't found anything,' he said. 'We don't go on hunches and inclinations, we go on evidence.'

The family also called on the DC police department to go public with details of the murder investigation at the time.

Family spokesperson, Brad Bauman, said: 'The family has full confidence in the Metropolitan Police Department's ability to proceed with this investigation.

'But given the large amount of hearsay and conspiracy theories surrounding the case, maybe it's time for the police department to be more forthcoming with information regarding the investigation and to update the people of Washington, D.C. on the status of the case.'