Trump campaign manager charged
GOP front-runner backs aide after Fla. battery report
Trump stood by his manager, Corey Lewandowski, and suggested that reporter Michelle Fields was lying even after police in Jupiter, Fla., released a video that shows Lewandowski grabbing her after the March 8 event at the Trump National Golf Club.
“If somebody squeezed your arm or hurt you, wouldn't you start screaming or something?” Trump asked supporters at a hotel rally in this small city in southern Wisconsin.
Lewandowski, who was also captured on video grabbing the collar of a protester at a recent rally in Tucson, Ariz., has “a beautiful wife and children,” Trump said, “and I'm not going to destroy a man for that.”
Trump said Fields had grabbed or hit his arm first.
Fields denied grabbing the candidate, and the videotape does not show her doing so. “Seriously, just stop lying,” she tweeted.
Lewandowski, 41, went to Jupiter police headquarters Tuesday morning, a police spokesman said, and was issued a summons for misdemeanor battery. He is scheduled to appear in court on May 4.
The Trump campaign said that Lewandowski is “absolutely innocent” of the charge.
The furor over Lewandowski consumed media attention, drowning out news that might have given a bounce to Trump's main rival for the Republican nomination, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz: an endorsement from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker a week ahead of that state's important primary.
An atmosphere of physical conflicts and violence surrounds Trump's presidential campaign, with skirmishes at a significant number of his rallies. Trump blames the protesters, though he has at times seemed to encourage the conflicts, saying at one point that he would like to punch a protester in the face.
The surveillance video from the March 8 incident shows Lewandowski following Trump through a crowd of people. Fields, holding up her cellphone, asked Trump a question.
“Lewandowski then grabbed Fields' left arm with his right hand, causing her to turn and step back,” says a report by police Detective Marc Bujnowski, adding that the motion allowed Lewandowski to “catch up and get closer to Trump.”
“I can't believe he just did that,” she said to a companion in an audio recording of the encounter. “That was so hard. Was that Corey?”
Much of what happened was also captured on cellphone video. A Washington Post reporter standing next to Fields, Ben Terris, told police that he saw Lewandowski reach out and “yank” the reporter's arm, causing her to lose her balance. The police report said her forearm showed “what appeared to be several finger marks indicating a grabbing type injury.”
Lewandowski was charged under a Florida misdemeanor statute that includes both causing bodily harm and “intentionally” touching or striking someone against their will. Bujnowski said he found probable cause to charge him with touching Fields against her will.
The campaign and Lewandowski have continued to deny anything untoward happened.
“You are totally delusional,” Lewandowski said to Fields on Twitter a few days after the news conference. “I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.”
On Tuesday, Trump offered another version of events, claiming Fields grabbed him first and that Lewandowski was trying to block her. “Why is she allowed to grab me and shout questions? Can I press charges?” he tweeted.
“I told him you should never settle this case; you should go all the way,” Trump told reporters in Janesville, where he was preparing to hold a rally. “I think they've really hurt a very good person, and I know it would be very easy for me to discard people; I don't discard people.”
Breitbart, a conservative news website, at first said it stood by Fields and asked for an apology — but later published a story that suggested Fields was mistaken and might have been grabbed by someone else. Fields resigned in protest, along with the site's editor and other staffers.
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