The rumors first came in on Twitter, and has since been confirmed: Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has turned himself in for misdemeanor battery* against former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. There’s also apparently video footage showing him grabbing Ms. Fields, which suggests that this is going to be over fairly quickly, as criminal proceedings go. I suspect that there will be no jail time, so be prepared for that. I’m also amused how ‘campaign manager’ became ‘Trump aide’ in local reports. Don’t think that that’s gonna help much, Palm Beach Post.

To the larger issue: well, any sensible, competent campaign would be dropping Lewandowski like a hot potato, considering that this issue will now plague them for the rest of the campaign season (and the general, if it got that far). So… so Donald Trump will undoubtedly try to brazen it out. Because that’s all the man knows how to do: brazen things out. Besides, Lewandowski is the closest thing to a technically competent person in the entire campaign, and I’m including the guy in it who is running for President.

[UPDATE]: And here (also via Twitter) is the video that the police released. Spoiler warning: Corey Lewandowski flat-out lied about grabbing Michelle Fields.

Moe Lane

*This is a fair charge, by the way. IIRC the other types of battery were either for grievous harm, or for sexual crimes. Which makes it amazing that the Trump campaign let this fester for so long. This could have been settled the night of… if you assume that anybody working for Donald Trump would ever apologize to a woman.