A protester was punched last week while being escorted out of a rally in North Carolina. Sheriff’s officials had been looking into whether Trump had incited a riot.
Gerald Herbert / AP
Sheriff's officials in North Carolina said Monday that Donald Trump will not face charges for possibly inciting riot-like conditions at a rally where one of his supporters punched a protester.
The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office had been looking into "the potential of whether there was conduct on the part of Mr. Trump or the Trump campaign which rose to the level of inciting a riot" in Fayetteville, a statement said. But later in the day, investigators determined there wasn't enough evidence to pursue the case.
In a statement to local media outlets, the sheriff's office said "legal counsel advised, and the sheriff concurred, that the evidence does not meet the requisites of the law as established under the relevant North Carolina statute and case law to support a conviction of the crime of inciting a riot."
The lead attorney for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, Ronnie Mitchell, had earlier said charges were unlikely.
Police arrested 78-year-old John McGraw after video footage of him punching a protester, Rakeem Jones, emerged.
McGraw was charged with assault and communicating threats after video from Inside Edition showed him saying he would kill Jones the "next time."
The sheriff's office on Monday said it was also considering pressing for additional charges against McGraw.
Asked about the incident during the GOP debate Thursday, Trump said he didn't condone violence, but the people who attend his rallies "come with tremendous passion and love for their country."
When pressed on the issue, Trump blamed the violence on protesters themselves, calling them "bad dudes" and "really dangerous."
Trump, meanwhile, has said that he might pay the legal fees for McGraw.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1TJLr1e
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