The Cumberland County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s Office considered charging the Republican presidential candidate with inciting a riot after one of his supporters sucker-punched a black protester who was being escorted last week out of a Fayetteville rally – but decided there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed. On one occasion, while the police were escorting a young man out of the arena, he seemed to lift his hand and make an obscene gesture. The supporter, 78-year-old John Franklin McGraw, was later charged with assault and disorderly conduct. All five of the deputies have been reprimanded, Butler said, and placed on probation for 12 months.
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“The evidence does not meet the requisites of the law…to support a conviction of the crime of inciting a riot”, read a statement late Monday, March 14, from the Cumberland County sheriff’s department.
Three deputies were demoted in rank and two others were suspended for three days without pay.
“Accordingly, we will not be seeking a warrant or indictment against Mr. Trump or his campaign for these offenses”, the statement said.
Butler added that he took into account “past bravery and exemplary conduct” of these deputies, some of whom responded to a 2014 killing spree in the county.
Trump has rejected suggestions that his language was to blame for recent clashes at his rallies.
“I tell you who they should charge are these terrible protesters that just go in there looking for trouble, and these are people that really – I mean, they’re agitators, they’re not even protesters – and they stand up and they scream and they shout, and frankly, sometimes they start punching – and those people really should be charged”.
The sheriff’s office said their actions in that situation factored into their punishment.
Afterward, McGraw told Inside Edition, “Next time we see him, we might have to kill him!”.
“We regret that any of the circumstances at the Trump rally occurred, and we regret that we have had to investigate all of these matters”, Butler said. They were only there to agitate and anger the crowd.
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Trump said Sunday that he was considering paying McGraw’s legal fees, but by Tuesday had already backed off that position, saying he “never said I was going to pay for fees”.
