Breitbart’s Matt Boyle — long silent in the ongoing discussion into what really happened between Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields — just posted text messages allegedly between himself and Lewandowski that seem to discredit the Daily Beast’s earlier reporting:
Text messages prove Lewandowski never 'acknowledged' grabbing @MichelleFields despite ERRONEOUS Daily Beast report: https://t.co/FaA01p1SnQ
— Matthew Boyle (@mboyle1) March 11, 2016
The opener:
Text messages between myself and Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, prove that an article in The Daily Beast that alleged Lewandowski admitted to me he grabbed Michelle Fields’ arm at a Trump press conference is entirely inaccurate and untrue.
The article, from The Daily Beast’s editor Lloyd Grove, relied originally on anonymous sources–and the allegation has since been made by Fields herself on the record, according to Grove’s latest email inquiry to me–to report that “sources said Lewandowski acknowledged to Breitbart’s Washington political editor, Matthew Boyle, that he did manhandle Fields.”
“Lewandowski’s explanation to Boyle, said these sources, was that he and Fields had never met before and that he didn’t recognize her as a Breitbart reporter, instead mistaking her for an adversarial member of the mainstream media,” Grove wrote.
That assertion is entirely untrue.
The rest here, including screenshots of the text messages. Here’s the first one:
Lloyd Grove, the author of the Daily Beast article alleging that Lewandowski had admitted the attack to Boyle, tweeted earlier that his response will be posted shortly. Stay tuned:
To all the lovely Twitteratti accusing me of lying about a communication between @CLewandowski_ and @mboyle1, The Daily Beast will post soon
— Lloyd Grove (@TheLloydGrove) March 11, 2016
Update 7:00 ET. Grove’s piece is up:
The Video That Breitbart & Trump Cannot Ignorehttps://t.co/mLPtuKo9td
— Lloyd Grove (@TheLloydGrove) March 11, 2016
He doesn’t address the sources in his first story and if they were wrong or not, but he does report that Fields is saying that it was Boyle who told her that Lewandowski admitted it:
On Friday night’s installment of Fox News’s The Kelly File, Fields elaborated in a damning account.
“After this had happened I called my editor [Matthew Boyle], I told him what had happened,” she told Megyn Kelly, according to a transcript provided by Fox News. “I didn’t want to file a police report. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it because, you know, I didn’t want to be all over the press and I certainly was worried about my job. What would happen if I went to the police.
“I told my editor and he called Corey and he spoke to him, and Corey said that he did it. He did not deny it. He said that he didn’t realize that I was a Breitbart reporter. Hope Hicks, who is Donald Trump’s spokeswoman, asked for my cell phone number and I was told that I was going to get an apology.”
The apology never arrived.
Editor’s note: Mr. Grove’s name was misspelled in one instance. We’ve corrected it and apologize for the error.
***
Related:
‘You already admitted it’: Trump campaign manager denies he ever met or touched Michelle Fields
‘WHAT SAY YOU NOW?’ New video strongly suggests Corey Lewandowski grabbed Michelle Fields
Join the conversation as a VIP Member