Video Validates Reporter’s Claim She Was Grabbed By Trump’s Campaign Manager

The controversy surrounding Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields’ criminal complaint claiming Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski assaulted her just got a lot more interesting. New video footage of the event released by C-SPAN seems to validate Fields’ claim that Lewandowski grabbed her by the arm and forcefully pulled her away from Trump at a Palm Beach campaign event Tuesday night.

Earlier reports, including from Fields’ own news site, Breitbart News, claimed that a video from a different angle suggested that Fields and Washington Post‘s Ben Terris (who witnessed the incident) were mistaken about Lewandowski being the one who grabbed Fields.However, release today of footage by C-SPAN taken from another angle shows Lewandowski reach out toward Fields’ left arm — the arm she showed photographic evidence of having been bruised (see below) — before the camera is blocked.

Here’s the C-SPAN video (Lewandowski reaches for Fields at the 0:09-0:10 mark):

Here’s how The Daily Beast described the moment: “At the 10-second mark that Lewandowski reached with his left arm for Fields’s left arm, briefly grabbing her. Lewandowski’s grasp then broke before he reached again, this time on her left arm, which is where Fields showed she was bruised the day after.”

Townhall synced up the C-SPAN video with another taken from a different angle and included the audio clips, making it even clearer that she was cut off and pulled back from Trump.

Many who have been following the story closely are pointing to the moment as evidence backing Fields’ allegation and are calling for Lewandowski’s firing and apologies both from Trump and Breitbart News, which has been inconsistent in its support of its own reporter:

Before the C-SPAN video emerged, Lewandowski posted a tweet with a link to an article by Breitbart’s Joel Pollack (which has since been updated to include the new footage), which he said proved he was not the one who grabbed Fields:

Among others, The Weekly Standard‘s Mike Warren rejected the claim:

As The Daily Wire reported, Fields provided photographic evidence of having been grabbed forcefully and Terris published his eyewitness account of the incident in the Washington Post. Despite the evidence, Lewandowski has dismissed Fields as “delusional” and an “attention seeker,” while Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks called Fields’ claim “entirely false.”

After the CNN Republican debate Thursday, Trump told reporters that Fields had likely just “made up” the whole thing. “Perhaps she made the story up,” he said. “I think that’s what happened.” But the evidence suggests Team Trump might be in trouble.

Here’s the photo Fields tweeted of her bruised arm: