Trump caign chief charged with battery of reporter

Washington: Donald Trump’s presidential campaign manager was arrested and charged with battery Tuesday for allegedly grabbing a reporter Florida police said in a dramatic new illustration of the tensions surrounding the Republican frontrunner’s White House bid.

Corey Lewandowski is accused of grabbing reporter Michelle Fields so hard that it left bruises on her arm at a March 8 Trump news conference at a golf club he owns in the Palm Beach County town of Jupiter.

“He was arrested this morning and released with a notice to appear” Adam Brown a Jupiter police spokesman told AFP.

Lewandowski 42 is due in court on May 4 according to an affidavit obtained by AFP.

Both he and Trump deny the incident took place and the campaign quickly disputed the fact that Lewandowski was even arrested.

The billionaire Trump whose rallies have been hit by a string of protests and outbreaks of sporadic violence took to social media to back his top staffer following Tuesday’s announcement prompting Fields to fire back.

“Mr. Lewandowski was issued a Notice to Appear and given a court date. He was not arrested” said a Trump campaign statement.

“Mr. Lewandowski is absolutely innocent of this charge. He will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. He is completely confident that he will be exonerated.”

According to a police report seen by AFP Fields—who has since resigned from the conservative site Breitbart News—showed “bruising from what appeared to be several finger marks indicating a grabbing type injury.”

Police said their investigation found “probable cause” to charge Lewandowski with misdemeanor simple battery “in that he did intentionally touch Michelle Fields... against the will of Michelle Fields.”

Fields says the alleged incident took place as the news conference was wrapping up and she followed Trump—who was moving to the back of the room—to ask him a question.

At that point she says Lewandowski grabbed her forearm in a scene witnessed by a Washington Post journalist.

Just stop lying’

Trump a reality television star who is in pole position for the Republican nomination used Twitter to hit out at Fields over the charge.

“Wow Corey Lewandowski my campaign manager and a very decent man was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes—nothing there!” Trump tweeted.

“Why aren’t people looking at this reporter’s earliest statement as to what happened that is before she found out the episode was on tape?”

But Fields refused to back down tweeting back: “Because my story never changed. Seriously just stop lying.”

Lewandowski also had his say on Twitter telling Fields on March 11: “You are totally delusional. I never touched you.”

“As a matter of fact I have never even met you” he added.

Partial videos and audio of the alleged incident made it difficult to say with certainty what had happened but video footage released by police Tuesday appeared to support the reporter’s account of events.

In a separate later incident caught on tape this month at a campaign event in Tucson Arizona Lewandowski appeared to grab one man by the scruff of the neck with a member of Trump’s security detail also involved in the fracas.

“I give him credit for having spirit. He wanted them to take down those horrible profanity-laced signs” Trump said of Lewandowski at the time adding that he never touched the man.

Volatile mix -

Trump and the media have made for a volatile mix on the campaign trail with the brash billionaire not shying away from trash-talking reporters to their faces and getting his staff and the masses to follow suit.

Fox New recently accused him of harboring a “sick obsession” with prominent news anchor Megyn Kelly and waging a campaign of crude verbal abuse against her.

And in a move that drew sexism allegations he has also taken shots at the wife of competitor Ted Cruz who called Tuesday’s development “very sad.”

“This is the consequence of the culture of the Trump campaign” Cruz told reporters.

“The abusive culture. When you have a campaign that is built on personal insults and attacks and now physical violence.”

Trump—whose run for the White House has from the start attracted boisterous crowds and counter demonstrators—has been criticized by both his Republican rivals and Democrats for not reining in his supporters at his boisterous rallies.

A Chicago Trump rally was canceled after demonstrators scuffled with his supporters and police struggled to maintain order with hundreds of protesters showing up.

AFP