Donald Trump’s campaign manager will not be prosecuted on a charge of simple battery for allegedly grabbing a female reporter last month, prosecutors announced Thursday.
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“As state attorney, I have made the decision that this office will not be filing charges against Corey Lewandowski for battery”, Dave Aronberg, state attorney in Palm Beach County, said at a press conference.
The Trump campaign released a statement saying Lewandowski was “gratified” by the decision to drop the charge.
As Trump’s statement on the matter ends, though, the matter does indeed appear to now be concluded. Lewandowski said he never touched her. The video showed Lewandowski did grab Fields’ arm, but did not nearly yank her down.
At the time, Michelle Fields was a reporter for the conservative Breitbart News website and was trying to ask Trump a question after the event.
State attorney David Aronberg has determined there is not enough evidence for a conviction.
Instead of opening with a question, Hannity began by saying the news Lewandowski wouldn’t be prosecuted must be a “big relief” and offered him an opportunity to thank Trump for his loyalty and rail against the “distraction” the whole ordeal became. But he said their decision in the case has “nothing to do with existence or nonexistence of an apology”.
She also said surveillance video shows Fields touching Trump first, “and you see Mr. Trump recoil his arm”.
Lewandowski said as a Catholic and a religious person he believes people deserve forgiveness when they ask for it.
After the Trump campaign and Trump supporters repeatedly insisted Fields was lying, she filed a report with local police in Jupiter, Florida. Fields approached the candidate and Trump reacted “by pulling his arm back and away from her”, the memo says. Trump is now campaigning to win a delegate majority before the Republican National Convention in July and secure the nomination outright.
Trump campaign social media director Dan Scavino posted on his Facebook page that the charge would not be pressed against Corey Lewandowski.
“Although these factors might undermine Mr. Lewandowski’s potential defense, they do not outweigh the reasonable hypothesis of innocence based on the real-time facts and circumstances recorded on the video”.
According to another prosecutor, Chief Assistant State Attorney Adrienne Ellis, Lewandowski “pulled Ms. Fields back” while she was attempting to interview Trump.
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Ms. Fields didn’t respond to a request for comment, but she took to Twitter to express her disappointment in the Florida prosecutor’s decision not to bring charges and anger that she hadn’t been informed directly ahead of the announcement. The deputy added that when the incident occurred, Fields was in a scrum in a protective area she was instructed not to be in.
