Criminal Assault? You Can’t Be Serious!
There are reasons to
think that Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is a jerk and in
some respects a thug. But in my opinion, the decision by a prosecutor in
Florida to charge Lewandowski with criminal assault in connection with his
encounter with former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields is a joke.
The police report in
the case says that “probable cause exists to charge Corey Lewandowski… with (1)
count of simple battery… in that he did intentionally touch Michelle Fields…
against the will of Michelle Fields.” That’s true enough, but if every
instance where someone touched someone else against his or her will were
prosecuted, just about all of us would be criminals. This is what the video
shows–an unwanted touch, certainly, but hardly a criminal assault:
The video is at this address: https://youtu.be/kLmQtOvU4Bc
Why did the local
authorities choose to prosecute Lewandowski? It came
out yesterday that Palm Beach County’s States Attorney is Dave Aronberg,
a former Democratic state senator and a high-profile backer of Hillary Clinton:
The
Florida prosecutor whose office is handling the battery case involving Donald
Trump’s campaign manager is a long-time Democrat and former state senator who’s
now part of Hillary Clinton’s so-called Florida leadership “council.” …
Aronberg,
who was elected to the post in 2012, has been listed as a member of Clinton’s
“Florida Leadership Council” since November, along with several state senators,
representatives and local elected officials. He also gave $1,000 to
Clinton’s campaign in January, according to campaign finance records.
When asked about
Aronberg’s political connections, a spokesman termed the question
“inappropriate” and declined to respond.
As I have said
before, Donald Trump’s rise has been fueled in large part by the
overreactions of his enemies. He (or, in this case, his aide) will do
something discreditable, but rather than leave it alone or respond in measured
fashion, his opponents all too often go overboard, so that Trump becomes a
sympathetic figure or appears, in the end, to be mostly in the right. This
looks like one more in a long succession of such miscalculations by those
who detest Trump.
