Surveillance video showed Trump aide Corey Lewandowski grabbing reporter Michelle Fields

Palm Beach County State Attorney David Aronberg has announced that his office will not be charging Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski with battery against former Breitbart report Michelle Fields. His official statement says the prosecutor has not yet received the case from the Jupiter Police Department, and has not yet decided on the matter:

Some media outlets have reported that this office has brought charges against Corey Lewandowski, campaign manager for Donald Trump. These reports are false. Our office has taken no action against Mr. Lewandowski. The matter was investigated and charged by the Jupiter Police Department, not this office. We will await the file from the Jupiter Police Department and make a decision on how to proceed in this matter before Mr. Lewandowski’s May 4th arraignment.

Law enforcement charges on a probable cause standard. The State has to proceed on a legally higher standard of proof, which is beyond a reasonable doubt as well as whether there is a reasonable likelihood of a conviction. At this point, our office has not received the case.

Given Aronberg’s previous statements about this case, though, it seems clear a prosecution is unlikely:

Aronberg would not comment, but in a POLITICO interview last week, he pointed out that Jupiter police had a low “probable cause” standard to cite Lewandowski for battery. But the responsibility for moving forward with a full-blown prosecution rested with Aronberg’s office, which had to consider whether a crime occurred and whether they believed a jury of Floridians would prosecute.

“We have a higher standard to go forward with a prosecution,” he said.

Michelle Fields posted a couple of tweets about this last night; she’s clearly not pleased with this decision:

Prosecutor’s office told me they would inform me of decision tomorrow. If reports true, guess they decided to leak to reporters first. Ugly.

— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) April 14, 2016

For those asking, office of prosecutor asked 2 weeks ago if I’d be ok with an apology from Corey. I said ya but haven’t heard back about it

— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) April 14, 2016

Meanwhile, guess who is claiming credit for the Palm Beach State Attorney’s decision? If you guessed “the thoroughly discredited white supremacist blogger banned for life from Twitter and currently suspended from Facebook, who tries to claim credit for almost every breaking news story,” you win!

Chuck C. Johnson (who is NOT ME) says he’s been “working behind the scenes” with Lewandowski’s lawyer, which apparently means he emailed copies of his absurdly vicious attacks on Michelle Fields, none of which would have played any part in the State Attorney’s decision, of course.

Lewandowski’s attorney is now trying to threaten Michelle Fields out of filing a civil liability suit.

Lewandowski’s lawyer says a defamation claim isn’t a good idea for Michelle Fields because “it opens up a large door to her past.”

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) April 14, 2016

Donald Trump called the prosecutor’s office personally to pressure them to drop the case.

Prosecutor: Trump personally called and spoke with several people in our office, told his story and urged us “to do the right thing.”

— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) April 14, 2016