March incident involving a reporter. Moments ago donald trump tweeted wow, Corey Lewandowski, my Campaign Manager, and a very decent man was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes. Nothing there. He adds this, why arent people looking at this reporters earliest statement as to what happened. This is before she found out the episode was on tape. That reporter michelle field responded on twitter because my story never changed. Seriously, just stop lying. Bring in brian stelter, the host of cnns reliable sources and our legal analyst danny cevallos. The accused the Campaign Manager of grabbing her arm. Fill us in on the details. Trump campaign has a contentious relationship with the press. This was a dramatic example. This this video that comes from one of trumps buildings, you can see Michelle Fields appearing to be grabbed by the Campaign Manager. She says she was shaken up by this incident. Right after it happened she spoke to another reporter from the Washington Post and said she had never been grabbed that way by any Campaign Official in her life. She was disturbed by it and spoke out publicly. The campaign denied it at the time, very strongly. Trump at one point said he thought she made it up and Corey Lewandowski called her delusional and said she is an attention seeker. A couple of days later she went to the police in florida and asked for this to be investigated. A couple of weeks later, we see the video from the first time. And we know he will have to appear in court in early may because authorities believe there is probable cause for battery charge. Hold on a minute. Danny, our legal analyst is with us, as well. We just got the statement in from mr. Lewandowski. Let me read a couple of statements from it. Mr. Lewandowski was issued a notice to appear and given a court date. He was not arrested. Mr. Lewandowski is innocent of this charge. He will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. He is confident he will be exonerated. The statement goes on to say he is represented by Scott Richardson of West Palm Beach and Kendall Coffey of miami. All right. Lets talk for a second, danny, about this charge. How serious is it . In the world of criminal charges, its less serious than others. It is misdemeanor battery. In this case, the maximum penalty, the statutory maximum is up to a year in jail and a year probation and of course fines. In the criminal charges it is one of the lower rungs. But for someone in a highprofile position like this individual any criminal conviction has serious collateral consequences. In the statement, he says he was not arrested. He was issued a notice to appear and given a court date. So does that mean he was not arrested . Florida rules allow for a criminal case to begin in one of two ways, either by a physical arrest or you can issue a notice to appear, which is just a written order to appear in court. You have still been charged but you have not been physically arrested. If you look at the charging documents, the document s released, you will see the form says arrest notice to appear which leads me to believe it maybe one of those dual purpose forms. So lewandowski maybe correct, according to florida rules, which allow for this alternative to a physical arrest. Yet the police in jupiter, florida, are calling this an arrest. Theres a dispute in the language about what it is. No matter what you call it, its not good news for the Trump Campaign. What campaign wants to talk about its Campaign Manager being accused of this . And of course michelle field as we saw on twitter a couple of minutes ago, standing by her story and accusing donald trump of lying. I want to bring jim akos tarks our correspondent covering the Trump Campaign. You have been at a lot of these events where there are restrictions on what the press can and cant do. When you heard about this notice to appear and give an court date. What went through your mind giving the times you have seen the relationship between the media covering donald trump and those who are trying to protect mr. Trump, shall we say, from the media and from people out there who atitend these rallies you are right. I have been to a lot of rallies. I have seen a lot of that up close. I should jump off you it an arrest or notice to appear, i can add that the Jupiter PoliceDepartment PublicInformation Officer said there is not going to be a mug shot released as a result of Corey Lewandowski turning himself in. Apparently when you turn yourself in and you are issued a notice to appear theres no mug shot taken. We should throw that out there, as well. I i can tell you there is a heavy security presence. And for good reason. You saw what happened in chicago. The near riot that broke out there. You saw what happened in fayetteville, north carolina, where a protester was sucker punched bay a donald trump supporter and where a Time Magazine reporter was trying to cover a protest and choke slamd by a secret Service Agent. Theres a tight security perimeter around reporters. We call it the pen covering these Trump Campaign rallies. Quite often there is a need to go out of that pen and cover the candidate, cover what is happening at these rallies. On march 8th, from what i can understand, is that Michelle Fields was attempting to ask donald trump. As you see in the Security Camera footage and as danny was saying and as brian were saying this appears to be why this charge came forward and why we are at the stage now with this case. He clearly, Corey Lewandowski, clearly grabs the arm of Michelle Fields and perhaps because michelle, as she said in the hent comment shes never been grabbed like that before. You and i have been in campaigns where you do get jostled by secret service and security. Sometimes jostled by the campaign staff. I think what is interesting about this footage and why it is illuminating is up until this point, Corey Lewandowski had tweeted Michelle Fields you are totally delusional. Donald trump said after one of the debates to our one of our reporters, that he thinks this was all made up. Clearly when you look at this footage, wolf, this wasnt made up. This isnt delusional. Something clearly happened here. Everybody stand by. I want to get official reaction from the donald Trump Campaign. Joining us his National Spokesperson joining us from dallas. We have seen the response from donald trump on twitter, in which he says specifically and i will read it again for our viewers, Corey Lewandowski, my Campaign Manager and decent man was charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes, nothing there. Whats the official word . Is he going to keep his job, take a leave of absence . Does donald trump have total confidence in his Campaign Manager . Yes, we have total confidence in our Campaign Manager. We feel he will be exonerated. You know, wolf, this is no different, for example, when i am in the middle of the scrum and get smacked around by Television Networks. I dont go and sue the Television Network because i have a cut on my arm from a camera. Everyone knows at these type of scrum events there is jostling around and pushing and the second you cross the secret service threat threshold you will be moved away from the candidate. This is not new. Corey lewandowski is going to beat this. He will plooed plead not guilty and we will have to let the process play out. Is it in other words, until all of this is resolved, legally he stays on the job as the Campaign Manager . Absolutely. He is not going anywhere, is that what you are saying. Thats exactly what i am saying. Again, these charges we keep forgetting the initial charges that she made, that the reporter made in her own words and they are out there, she specifically said that he aggressively grabbed her and nearly threw her to the ground. It is very obvious that is not what happened in this case. Mr. Lewandowski is going to fight it. You can see that he did grab her arm over there, as he was trying to interfere, stop her from asking questions to donald trump. There was a reporter from the Washington Post who backs up her version and so clearly there was some sort of contact between lewandowski and this reporter Michelle Fields, right . It is actually the reporter at the Washington Post that created the narrative. What we have seen over time is the story did change a little bit. She didnt even go to the authorities for a couple of days after the attention started to rev up. I think we will see moving forward she wasnt too concerned about the reaction initially. She didnt can contact the campaign or the authorities. She didnt contact anyone other than twitter when the alleged incident occurred. Let me ask our legal analyst if he is still there, danny, are you still with us . Hes not there. I wanted to ask him because the point is that she waited three days before she contacted police. If that was a legal issue as far as his defense is concerned. The whole notion that he didnt know who she was. He claimed he didnt know who she was. He had no contact with her. There are a lot of people, as you know, who are accusing him of lying. That he knew she was with breitbart, she knew who she was and he wanted to deliberately stop her from asking questions and thats why he grabbed her arm and stopped her effectively from asking questions. That is absurd. A lot of reporters and bloggers think they are known and they are not. You can see from another angle of the video. He is walking through the crowd accordingly. That is what the campaigns do. It is particularly when you cross the threshold of the secret service. You cant even tell he made eye contact with her. How is he supposed to know whoever writer is. It is insane to assume particularly with the number of reporters always trying to talk to mr. Trump immediately after they walk in to a brick wall of reporters. So of course these things happen in the scrum. Perhaps campaigns, particularly president ial campaigns, should change the rule the type of access the press get from here on. Why was he blocking in effect for trump . I have covered a lot of campaigns. Campaign managers usually have a different role than someone walking behind the candidate preventing journalists from asking questions. They do. In this case corey was one of those people. There are staff that take on multiple roles and this is one of them. I myself have been moved around by Staff Members of campaigns, even lower level Staff Members who are helping at a particular event. This is nothing new. At the same time, the allegation is he grabbed her aggressively, nearly throwing her to the ground. It did not happen. It is not on the video and mr. Lewandowski will be cleared of all charges. We remember after the incident at one of the election nights at an event, a News Conference plaus plus a statement delivering, at his club in palm beach. It looked like Corey Lewandowski was standing right behind him as a vote of confidence, if you will, by donald trump a vote of confidence for Corey Lewandowski was that to show he had confidence in his Campaign Manager . I think you can look back at other election nights. Many of the staff, including myself have shared the stage with mr. Trump on victory night. That is nothing new. It fits in to the narrative the media has been trying to create around the campaign. Everyone has been attacked on this campaign. I think it is worth pointing out simply that these types of things are not uncommon to be jostled or moved or hit, whether it is by a campaign person or media person. Gi again, like i said, you can start to sue networks for slashing your arm can with a camera which is what happened in my case. This is absurd, ridiculous and will be beat. If it is not beat when he appears in court does he stay in the campaign or forced out . Yes, mr. Lewandowski is an intrigual part of the team and the camp wholeheartedly supports him and will see him through the ordeal. I will ask you to stand by. More to discuss this hour. We will bring in representatives from the Cruz Campaign and the Kasich Campaign. Much more coming up. Will this charge against Donald TrumpsCampaign Manager have any real impact on Trump Supporters . A week from today, a huge election, the primary in wisconsin. We will get assessments from that. Later this hour, the clinton andened Bernie Sanders sanders will join us live. We will have their reaction to this news and more. Stay with us. You both have a perfect driving record. Perfect. No tickets. No accidents. That is until one of you clips a food truck, ruining your perfect record. Yup. Now, you would think your Insurance Company would cut you some slack, right . No. Your insurance rates go through the roof. Your perfect record doesnt get you anything. Anything. Perfect for drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. And if you do have an accident, our claim centers are available to assist you 24 7. For a free quote, call Liberty Mutual at switch to Liberty Mutual and you could save up to 509 call today at see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Republican president ial candidate ted cruz now responding to the news we have been following. The charge being levelled, simple battery against Corey Lewandowski. The donald trump Campaign Manager for grabbing the arm of a reporter. Listen to cruz. Is there consequences at a Campaign Level that should be undertaken . Its a very sad development. This is the consequence of the culture of the Trump Campaign. The abusive culture. When you have a campaign that is built on personal insults and attacks and now physical violence. That has no place in a political campaign, and no place in our democracy. I think it is a really unfortunate development. I do think it helps clarify for the voters what the Trump Campaign is all about. And my focus is not on the personal insults and attacks. It is on a positive, optimistic conservative agenda. How we turn the country around. How we bring jobs back to america, how i to bring manufacturing jobs back to wisconsin, how we see wages rising and expand tune for young people. Thats my focus and why we see energy and enthusiasm in wisconsin. Its why today we were very honored to earn the support of Governor Scott walker, one of the strongest conservatives in the country, a strong principled governor in the state and the latest development in republicans continuing to unify behind our campaign. Ted cruz reacting to the news. Donald trumps Corey Lewandowski has been charged with simple battery. Corey lewandowski showed up in a Police Station today in jupiter, florida. The charges stem from an incident on march 8th, involving a reporter for breitbart, Michelle Fields. This is the last thing a campaign wants to see, exactly a week before crucial primary in wisconsin. It is. You see the way ted cruz was handling this. Cruz understands he has to win wisconsin he has been through this heidi, cruz, Melania Trump controversy with each others wive and he is calling the Trump Campaign saying it has an i bussive culture are not soft words ands its clear to me and cruz is a smart candidate. What he is playing for are women voters. And the question is, trump has done well with republican women, so far, overall with women he has a 74 unfavorable rating but with republican women he beats ted cruz. It seems to me that cruz is trying to take advantage of this and tarring the candidate with Corey Lewandowski wrapping them all together in one big bow to play for women. Strong statement of support for Corey Lewandowski from donald trump. And you heard the National Press spokeswoman for the Trump Campaign. Hes with him 100 , even if he is convicted he s