He then lied about it to the media afterwards on Twitter.
Washington Post reporter Ben Terris [__wrote a first person account__](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/inside-trumps-inner-circle-his-staffers-are-willing-to-fight-for-him-literally/2016/03/10/4b2b18e8-e660-11e5-a6f3-21ccdbc5f74e_story.html) of the incident where ex-Brietbart correspondent MIchell Fields claimed assault to the local authorities and Terris published it, but the Republican primary leader’s Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski denied the incident voraciously.
Lewandowski claimed to have never met the reporter.
But now, the orange-faced politician’s right hand man has already [__turned himself in__](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-campaign-manager-charged-with-battery-in-florida/2016/03/29/bc8791e6-f5c5-11e5-9804-537defcc3cf6_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_lewandowski-2pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory) to Jupiter, Florida police to face charges and will have a hearing on May 8th.
Yet, the Trump campaign continues to [__maintain its campaign manager’s innocence__](http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/local/trump-aide-charged-with-misdemeanor-battery-on-ex-/nqtkY/), which is Lewandowski’s 5th Amendment right to maintain, telling the Palm Beach Post:
“Donald Trump’s campaign released a statement following aide Corey Lewandowski’s arrest saying: He’s “absolutely innocent.”
In the court of public opinion, Lewandowski has lost.
Fields [__in her own words__](http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/03/10/3276486/), never wanted to become the story, but it led to her resignation from Breitbart.
Not that any of this will damage Trump, or his supporters view of the man described by the Washington Post’s Michael Gerson as an authoritarian populist, which is a heck of a euphemism for neo-fascist.
However, it might be a burden for the Trump campaign to continue working with Lewandowski, whose public claim on twitter, may go down in political annals as famous last words in someone’s Political Hall Of Shame.
Behold:
@MichelleFields you are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.
— Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) March 11, 2016
For its part in the affair, Breitbart News received low marks for failing to back its own reporter’s account of the story, going so far as to [__place a gag order on its staffers__](http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/breitbart-editor-ordered-staffers-to-stop-defending-michelle#.mv21WQ7PD) about the incident.
Then Breitbart corporate spokesman Kurt Bardella [__resigned in protest__](http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/14/opinions/breitbart-trump-coverage-bardella/) over the incident’s handling by his reportedly pro-Trump news outlet.
So did lead journalist Ben Shapiro who [__said__](http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/michelle-fields-ben-shapiro-resign-from-breitbart#.yxKABpn2R):
> “Andrew [Breitbart]’s life mission has been betrayed,” Shapiro wrote. “Indeed, Breitbart News, under the chairmanship of Steve Bannon, has put a stake through the heart of Andrew’s legacy. In my opinion, Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew’s mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda, to the extent that he abandoned and undercut his own reporter, Breitbart News’ Michelle Fields, in order to protect Trump’s bully campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly assaulted Michelle.”
And now, the wheels of justice will turn, and Trump’s campaign manager will get his day in court.
He’ll have to deny his untoward act to a judge, and possibly a jury of his peers, if he doesn’t take a plea bargain in light of the video evidence against him.
A simple apology to former Breitbart reporter Fields by Trump campaign manager Lewandowski might have been sufficient to avoid this entire hullaballo just a few, short weeks ago.
*Ed. Note: Term “Assaulted” in headline, search slug and lede was changed to battered for accuracy’s sake to comport with police charges filed.*
