Washington – Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s campaign manager said on Friday that he was relieved a battery case against him was over but disputed a reporter’s claim that he never reached out after she accused him of bruising her arm.
Corey Lewandowski told CNN he called Michelle Fields, then a reporter for the conservative news outlet Breitbart, on the night of the March 8 incident in Florida after seeing her boyfriend’s Twitter account that something had occurred. He said he never heard back.
“I didn’t know what happened, honestly,” he said. “It was a brief interaction, and it wasn’t memorable to me, and I’m sorry about that.”
Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said on Thursday that Lewandowski, 42, would not be prosecuted on a misdemeanor battery charge involving Fields.
Police in Jupiter charged Lewandowski on March 29 with intentionally grabbing and bruising Fields’ arm at a campaign event. They released a video of the incident showing Fields walking alongside Trump and trying to question him. Lewandowski is seen grabbing her arm and pulling her backward.
Fields posted on Twitter on Wednesday: “For those asking, office of prosecutor asked 2 weeks ago if I’d be ok with an apology from Corey. I said ya but haven’t heard back about it.”
She could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Lewandowski told CNN his phone records proved that he did try to contact Fields.
“It’s not that we didn’t try and reach out to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “It seems to me that she wanted to inject herself into making it a story, and now I’m glad the story’s over.”
As reported by Vos Iz Neias