Michelle’s Field of Dreams

Canada Free Pressn ^ | 03/31/16 | Katy Grimes & Megan Barth

[FJB]

“She was setting someone up to make a charge against....”

I don’t understand why commentators keep missing this point. No reasonable reporter would breach the boundary of a Secret Service security detail and put her hands on a presidential candidate unless seeking to precipitate an aggressive response. This is indeed a time-honored tactic in which deliberate provocation is used to elicit a reaction that can then form the basis of a claim that one has been victimized. The Secret Service agents on duty would have been well within their rights to manhandle her roughly, place her in handcuffs, and escort her from the area.

If an aggressive response to Fields by Secret Service agents would have been justifiable or excusable as part of their duty to protect a presidential candidate, a similar response by Lewandowski should be privileged as well. As long as this response was not legally excessive (as in excessive force cases), then there necessarily was no unlawful or illegal battery—any more than justifiable or excusable homicide could support a charge of murder or manslaughter. Given the circumstances under which the “touching” occurred, Lewandowski should be entitled to this absolute defense, which automatically precludes any criminal culpability. It is difficult not to conclude that Fields is either a Cruz campaign operative seeking to manipulate the Trump campaign into behavior that might make it look bad, or she is an emotionally unstable individual who engaged in histrionic self-dramatization in the hope of enhancing her career (or possibly both). Unfortunately, I suspect that her career will now actually suffer insofar as people (such as myself) who previously respected her as a reporter and commentator will be less likely to take her seriously.

[Nifster]

I thought I recognized you. ;)