Jupiter, Fla., who said he had grabbed a reporter as she tried to ask the candidate a question.
The charge stems from an incident on March 8 that attracted days of news coverage and became a distraction for Mr. Trump’s campaign as his victories in the March 1 Super Tuesday contests gave way to more mixed results.
It occurred after a news conference at Trump National Golf Club, as Mr. Trump made his way out of a crowded room and the reporter, Michelle Fields of Breitbart News, a conservative website, sidled up to him.
Ms. Fields said she was trying to ask Mr. Trump about judges and affirmative action when Mr. Lewandowski grabbed her roughly. She posted on Twitter a picture of finger-shaped bruises on her arm.
Mr. Lewandowski denied touching her and called Ms. Fields “delusional.”
But Ms. Fields pressed charges three days later, according to a police report. The investigating officer, Detective Marc Bujnowski, took statements from Ms. Fields and a Washington Post reporter, Ben Terris, who said he had witnessed the incident. The detective also obtained security video footage from the Trump golf club, which he said “parallels what Fields had told me.”
Trump Campaign Manager Grabs Reporter
Security camera images released by the Jupiter Police Department in Florida show Donald J. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, grabbing a Breitbart News reporter, Michelle Fields, as she tried to ask Mr. Trump a question.
By JUPITER, FLA., POLICE DEPARTMENT on Publish Date March 29, 2016. Watch in Times Video »Mr. Lewandowski, Detective Bujnowski wrote, “grabbed Fields left arm with his right hand, causing her to turn and step back.”
Indeed, a series of still photographs captured from security cameras at the golf club, released on Tuesday by the Jupiter Police Department, appears to corroborate Ms. Fields’s version of events: Mr. Lewandowski can be seen reaching for and then grabbing her arm, tugging at her clothing as he pulls her; he then walks ahead of her, close behind Mr. Trump. The entire incident takes less than four seconds.
Mr. Lewandowski turned himself in at the headquarters of the Jupiter Police Department at 8:10 a.m. on Tuesday. He was given a court date of May 4 at North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
“He came in and signed the notice to appear himself, on his own will,” said Officer Joseph Beinlich, a spokesman for the department. Officer Beinlich described the appearance as a brief interaction, and said that after handling the paperwork, Mr. Lewandowski “walked out the door.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, Hope Hicks, said Tuesday that Mr. Lewandowski was “absolutely innocent of this charge”; that he would plead not guilty; and that he had not actually been arrested, but had merely been issued a “notice to appear.”
But Officer Beinlich said otherwise. “A notice to appear is an actual arrest,” he said.
Mr. Lewandowski is known as a combative and sometimes divisive figure in Mr. Trump’s orbit. He has been known to scream and curse at reporters with regularity, putting some on a “blacklist” for coverage he considers unfavorable. On March 19, video of a Trump rally in Arizona appeared to show Mr. Lewandowski grabbing a protester from behind by his collar and pulling him backward. (Ms. Hicks denied Mr. Lewandowski had done so.)
Document: 'Arrest/Notice to Appear' Paperwork Related to Corey Lewandowski
In 1999, as chief of staff to Bob Ney, then a Republican representative from Ohio, Mr. Lewandowski was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor when he brought a pistol into a congressional office building. He said at the time that it had been an accident. The police seized the weapon, prompting him to sue unsuccessfully in federal court, claiming he had been stripped of his gun without due process.
Mr. Lewandowski is being represented by Scott N. Richardson of West Palm Beach, formerly the first assistant state attorney in Palm Beach County, and Kendall B. Coffey of Miami, a former United States attorney for South Florida.
Mr. Coffey, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, resigned his federal prosecutor’s post in 1996 after an investigation into allegations that he had an altercation at a topless bar after losing an important drug case. He is representing Mr. Trump in a dispute involving another of his clubs, in Doral, Fla., according to The Miami Herald.
Ms. Hicks did not immediately respond to an email asking whether Mr. Trump was paying Mr. Lewandowski’s legal fees.
In two midday Twitter posts on Tuesday, Mr. Trump defended his campaign manager in definitive terms.
“Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes-nothing there!” he wrote in one.
In another, Mr. Trump appeared to raise questions about the veracity of what Ms. Fields has said, asking why people were not looking at her “earliest statement as to what happened,” from “before she found out the episode was on tape.”
To which Ms. Fields responded in her own Twitter post: “Because my story never changed. Seriously, just stop lying.”
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