Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski charged with battery for grabbing Breitbart reporter

Jason Silverstein

Donald Trump’s hothead campaign manager Corey Lewandowski surrendered to police Tuesday for allegedly grabbing a former Breitbart reporter earlier this month — an incident Trump’s camp repeatedly denied.

Trump’s top goon has been charged with a misdemeanor count of battery for the alleged rough-up at a March 8 news conference in Jupiter, Fla., according to the Palm Beach Post.

The Trump campaign immediately jumped to defend its manager.

“Mr. Lewandowski is absolutely innocent of this charge,” a campaign statement said.

“He will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. He is completely confident that he will be exonerated.”

Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields accused Lewandowski of grabbing her arm. She filed a police report even tweeted a photo of her bruises.

But her right-wing, Trump-loving employer refused to stand by her, sparking a mutiny in which Fields and several other Breitbart staffers resigned.

The Trump campaign called her accusations “entirely false,” and Lewandowski lashed out at Fields on Twitter, writing: “you are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.”

Lewandowski turned himself in around 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, according to a police report. It’s unclear what led to his surrender.

After charging Lewandowski, Jupiter Police put out previously unseen surveillance footage of the incident. A police report said the video backed up Fields’ side of the story, showing Lewandowski forcefully pulled her back so he could “catch up” to Trump in a media scrum.

Lewandowski is due in court May 4 and will be represented by two defense attorneys. One of them, Kendall Coffey, resigned from his post as U.S. attorney in 1996 over reports that he bit a stripper in Miami.

Lewandowski has also been accused of yanking the collar of a young man at a chaotic Trump rally in Tucson, Ariz. this month. He denied the yank and blamed it on another man in the crowd — who turned out to be a member of Trump’s security team.

Messages left with Lewandowski and his lawyers were not immediately returned.