Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte Lied to Police About Assaulting a Reporter

Remember when that billionaire GOP congressional candidate
from Montana body
slammed a Guardian reporter and
then went on to win the election the next day?

New records made public on Friday show that now U.S. Rep.
Greg Gianforte misled police about the incident last May, claiming that reporter
Ben Jacobs initiated the attack. A court ordered the records to be released,
including more than 100 pages of
documents, photos, and audio from the investigation, the Associated Press
reported.

Gianforte told police following the attack that Jacobs had
grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him to the ground, and that the “liberal
media” was “trying to make a story” out of it. The only problem with those
statements was that there were multiple witnesses who contradicted it, and
Gianforte eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault.

From the AP report:

The documents include interviews with members of a Fox News
crew who were in the room with Gianforte and Jacobs at the politician’s Bozeman
campaign office. They said Gianforte became enraged over what he perceived as
biased coverage before body-slamming Jacobs, throwing him to the ground and
punching him…

Another worker said Gianforte and others on the campaign had
been complaining earlier in the day about “duplicitous” campaign coverage by
the Guardian and Buzzfeed.

Gianforte received a slap
on the wrist for all of this, including a $385 fine, community service, and
mandatory anger management classes. And at the end of the day, the lying,
violent Republican billionaire was rewarded with a seat in the U.S. House of
Representatives.

The latest news of Gianforte’s dishonesty isn’t surprising.
As The Guardian reported, Gianforte’s
campaign spokesman, Shane Scanlon, also tried to blame Jacobs for the attack
shortly after it happened. In a statement back in May, Scanlon made the same
false claims that later showed up in Gianforte’s police report.

“It’s unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a
liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ,” Scanlon
said at the time.

In June, Gianforte admitted
that the claim that Jacobs initiated the attack was a lie. He also agreed
to donate $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists. But that doesn’t
mean any lessons were learned.

After the documents were made public on Friday, Gianforte’s
spokesman, Travis Hall, told the AP in an emailed statement that, “No one was
misled, and anyone who says otherwise is mistaken. Greg took responsibility for
his actions and is focused on serving the people of Montana.”

By “no one,” Hall apparently is including Gallatin County
Attorney Marty Lambert, a Republican, who told the AP that misleading
statements to police are common, and that, “It is not a crime per se to lie to
the cops.”