A reporter for the website Breitbart.com has filed a police report against Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski for allegedly attacking her after a campaign event on Tuesday, according to Independent Journal Review.
According to an eyewitness account, Lewandowski violently grabbed Breitbart report Michelle Fields’s arm and pulled her down, causing her to stumble and lose her balance after she asked Trump a question during a press conference following a campaign event in south Florida. Fields posted pictures on social media of what she says are bruises on her arm caused by Lewandowski.
Both Trump and Lewandowski have since publicly denied that Lewandowski grabbed Fields. An article published on Thursday by Daily Beast, however, states that Lewandowski confessed to Breitbart editor Matthew Boyle shortly after the alleged battery that “he did manhandle Fields.”
VIDEO: Trump to @DylanByers on @MichelleFields incident. “I think she made it up.” pic.twitter.com/VUB5LnbrTM
Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) March 11, 2016
@MichelleFields you are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.
Corey Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) March 11, 2016
Breitbart editor Joel Pollak wrote a story Friday morning claiming that Lewandowski never grabbed Fields and denounced Washington Post Ben Terris’s eyewitness account of the incident.
“New video of Donald Trump’s press conference Tuesday evening shows that the Washington Post’s account of an altercation involving Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields could not possibly have happened as Ben Terris reported,” he wrote.
In the article, Pollak claims that there were several men standing nearby Trump who resembled Lewandowski, and that Terris could have mistakenly identified a Trump staffer instead of a Secret Service agent. Terris stands by his account of the incident.
He ignores there was an eyewitness, @bterris, and an audio tape https://t.co/hUoUgAflCN
Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) March 11, 2016
Multiple news outlets–Politico, ABC News, CSPAN, and MSNBC–have released photographs as well as video and audio footage of the moment in question.
https://twitter.com/JGreenDC/status/708377283292221441
.@MSNBC video of the alleged incident between @CLewandowski_ and @MichelleFields https://t.co/pEux8KHqmr
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) March 11, 2016
Reporter who alleges Trump campaign manager assaulted her says: “No one wants to be touched and violated like that” https://t.co/QfveOzC8Hb
World News Tonight (@WNTonight) March 10, 2016
Armed with nothing but speculation & screen grabs, Breitbart produces fodder for Lewandowski to cite as exonerating. pic.twitter.com/m4C7FTqpss
T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) March 11, 2016
Breitbart has been criticized as carrying water for Trump’s campaign. Many have observed that their coverage has been friendly towards Trump throughout this campaign cycle.
The local police department that received the criminal complaint against Lewandowski confirmed that it is investigating an alleged incident of battery at the Trump press conference.
Statement from Jupiter PD on “Misdemeanor Battery Investigation” re: Fields/Lewandowski allegations: pic.twitter.com/YgalAEXy6a
Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) March 11, 2016
Under Florida state statutes, battery is a misdemeanor crime that is punishable by up to $1,000 in fines and up to one year in prison.
