Police release security footage showing Donald Trump campaign manager’s alleged battery of reporter
Lowell native Corey Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor battery Tuesday by Florida police.
New security footage released Tuesday from Donald Trump’s Florida resort shows the Republican candidate’s campaign manager allegedly assaulting former reporter Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields.
Corey Lewandowski, a Lowell native, is charged with simple battery, Jupiter police announced Tuesday.
According the police report, the security video from Trump National Golf Club “parallels” what Fields told of the incident following the March 8 press conference:
Fields is seen on video, holding her phone up to Trump, appearing to ask him a question. Trump had looked in her direction. … After extending his arm, Lewandowski appeared to reach for Fields’s left arm with his left hand, allowing him to get closer to Fields.
Lewandowski then grabbed Fields[‘s] left arm with his right hand, causing her to turn and step back. This motion cleared a path for Lewandowski to walk past Fields, allowing him to “catch up” and get closer to Trump, who was walking during this entire incident.
In a statement Tuesday, the Trump campaign said Lewandowski will plead not guilty. He is scheduled to appear in court May 4.
Fields, who has since resigned from her post at Breitbart News, said she was trying to ask Trump a question when someone “grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken.”
Following Fields’ initial accusations, Lewandowski replied that he “never touched” her and Trump suggested that the reporter “made the story up.”
The Republican front-runner stood by his campaign manager Tuesday.
Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes-nothing there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2016
He also suggested that Fields had changed her statements since the incident.
Why aren’t people looking at this reporters earliest statement as to what happened, that is before she found out the episode was on tape?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2016
Fields replied that her story “never changed.”
https://twitter.com/MichelleFields/status/714857227803312129
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