LF: Trump aide charged with misdemeanor battery vs. ex-Breitbart reporter

Title: Trump aide charged with misdemeanor battery vs. ex-Breitbart reporter
Source: Palm Beach Post
URL Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/n ... demeanor-battery-on-ex-/nqtkY/
Published: Mar 29, 2016
Author: Lulu Ramadan
Post Date: 2016-03-29 12:29:25 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 2700
Comments: 25

Following a March 8 conference at Trump National Golf Club, Michelle Fields, a 28-year-old reporter formerly with the online Breitbart News Network, said she was grabbed on the arm by Lewandowski, 41, after she asked Trump a question about affirmative action.

Trump cancels rally while campaign manager faces accusation photo

Washington Post reporter Ben Terris wrote that he witnessed the battery.

Jupiter police later said they were looking into the incident after Fields filed a report, although investigators had not named Lewandowski.

Lewandowski turned himself in to Jupiter police just after 8 a.m., accoriding to a police report.

Surveillance footage captured at Trump National, off Donald Ross Road, corroborates Feilds’ claim, the arrest report says.

Fields, who Tweeted photos of bruises on her arm she said resulted from the battery, resigned Breitbart less than a week after the incident. She cited Breitbart’s refusal to stand behind her amid the allegations as her reason for leaving.

Lewandowski replied to Fields’ Tweet, writing: “You are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.”

Ben Shapiro, former Breitbart editor-at-large, also resigned, claiming in a prepared statement that the conservative news outlet, seen largely as supportive of Trump’s presidential bid, “abandoned” Fields “in order to protect Trump’s bully campaign manager.”

Several other employees followed suit in the following weeks and resigned, according to multiple reports.

From that angle, it looks as though he grabbed or hooked her arm and kept her from moving forward when she got too close to Trump. Looking at her feet, she was stopped, but not pulled backwards.

At the time, her statement was, "Someone had 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.”

An anonymous witness to the incident told the Daily Beast that Fields was grabbed from behind and was yanked “down toward the ground like a ragdoll.”

But it appears Lewandowski lied when he claimed in a tweet 'I never touched you'.

And she lied when she said, "Someone had 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.”

The question is, does this rise to the level of misdemeanor battery? Put me on the jury and I would crucify her for wasting my time on this petty bullshit and the judge for even hearing the case.

I've seen it. I wouldn't say it is completely cut and dried that he did something to her.

But you do have the WaPo reporter who said from the beginning that it happened as she said it did. In fact, he is the strongest witness or evidence that can be mustered against Lewandowski. Make of that what you will. I'm not sure I'm willing to accept offhand that a liberal WaPo reporter would perjure himself to try to take out Lewandowski. And I'm not sure that would cripple Trump's campaign since the campaign mostly consists of Trump bottom-feeding the media with a fresh outrage to generate free media every few days, then a half-hearted retreat from the Trump outrage du jour, leaving Trump as having dominated the news cycle once again, clearly his strategy.

What Trump is doing isn't just Trump being Trump. It is a campaign designed to feed on the media and drive their coverage toward him, for good or bad. It is Donald expertly sucking all the air out of the room a couple of times a week.

So Trump really does have his own media-based strategy to absolutely dominate news coverage, one that is truly novel and unique. Until he pulled this, everyone thought such a campaign tactic would never work. But it has, to a surprising degree.

But this was a case where there was a crowd and she was imposing herself on the candidate. She was halted in her tracks and the crowd moved on.