On Tuesday, Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was charged with battery [1] by police in Florida. They said he grabbed a Breitbart news [2] reporter named Michelle Fields while she approached Trump to ask a question during a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, FL, on March 8. The Jupiter Police Department also released a video of the incident, in which you can see Lewandowski grabbing Fields by the arm and pulling her back.
Previously, an audio recording immediately following the incident [3] supported Field's claims that she was grabbed. In her account posted on Breitbart [4], Fields wrote, "Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down." Lewandowski denied the claims on March 10, calling Fields "totally delusional."
@MichelleFields [5] 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 [6]
Trump also disputed the charge on 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 [7]
Lewandowski turned himself in Tuesday morning, according to the Palm Beach Post [8], and will appear in court on May 4.
Fields resigned from her job [9] in March after feeling like she didn't have the support of the news organization. Of course, this isn't the only time we've seen allegations of violence at a Trump event [10].