Caught on video aggressively grabbing a reporter and yanking her away from his boss, Trump’s presidential campaign manager was charged with battery on Tuesday after leaving the journalist with bruises and blatantly touching her against her will. A few weeks after attacking the reporter, Corey Lewandowski was captured on video again violently grabbing a protester during a Trump rally.
After speaking at the ballroom of the Trump National Golf Club on March 8, Donald Trump made his way toward the exit while taking questions from reporters and signing autographs. Attempting to ask Trump a question regarding judges and affirmative action, Michelle Fields of Breitbart News held up her cell phone as a recording device when Lewandowski crept up behind her.
According to the audio recording of the incident, Fields can be heard saying, “Holy shit! I can’t believe he just did that…that was so hard. Was that Corey?”
Witnessing the assault, Ben Terris of The Washington Post immediately confirmed, “He just threw you out of the way. Like what threat were you?”
Surveillance video from the event also confirms that Lewandowski abruptly grabbed Fields’ left arm before violently yanking her backwards, nearly forcing the reporter to lose her balance. Fields clearly did not pose a threat to anyone and never gave Trump’s campaign manager permission to place his hands on her.
The next day, Fields posted a picture of her bruised arm on Twitter. In response, Lewandowski accused Fields of being “totally delusional” while falsely asserting that he never touched her.
On March 11, Fields contacted the Jupiter Police Department and filed a battery report against Lewandowski. While Detective Marc Bujnowski diligently confirmed Fields’ allegations, Breitbart News failed to stand by their journalist and actively attempted to discredit her version of events. Along with Fields, Breitbart editor-at-large Ben Shapiro and a handful of other employees resigned from the media outlet in protest.
After viewing the footage of Lewandowski grabbing Fields from behind, Breitbart editor Joel Pollak recently admitted, “Clearly I was wrong.”
Following his assault on Fields, Lewandowski was caught on video again a few days later gripping a protester by the shirt at a Trump rally in Arizona. As a security guard attempts to eject the nonviolent protester, Lewandowski gets in the young man’s face and grabs his shirt collar.
At 8:10 a.m. on Tuesday, Lewandowski surrendered himself to the Jupiter Police Department after being charged with battery against Fields. His court date is scheduled for May 4.
In 1999, Lewandowski was arrested for bringing a pistol into a congressional office building. He unsuccessfully sued the police in federal court for taking his gun without due process.
Instead of firing his campaign manager for violently grabbing a reporter, Trump continues to refute Fields’ version of events despite insurmountable video and audio evidence against Lewandowski. In reaction to his campaign manager’s arrest, Trump wrote, “Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes-nothing there!”
A few minutes later, Trump tweeted, “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?”
In response, Fields wrote to Trump, “Because my story never changed. Seriously, just stop lying.”
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