Fox News host Greta Van Susteren took to Twitter to blast anyone encouraging Michelle Fields to pursue a legal case against Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Van Susteren, a veteran criminal defense and civil trial lawyer and Georgetown Law faculty member prior to her career in broadcast journalism, tweeted out “free legal advice to Michelle Fields” last night after news broke that a Florida prosecutor declined to pursue a case against Lewandowski, who was charged with misdemeanor battery for an incident involving Fields at a campaign event in March.
The tweet linked to post on her Greta Wire blog explaining why “Anyone encouraging Michelle Fields to bring a civil law suit is not doing her a favor.”
Van Susteren wrote:
Anyone encouraging Michelle Fields to bring a civil law suit is not doing her a favor. She does not want to take the stand in a civil case, subject to rigorous cross examination, that is likely to be on television to discuss a case that the DA won’t prosecute because he does not believe the evidence shows assault. Yes, the burden of proof is less in a civil case, but she is just not going to win and it will be expensive and a heartache. Even if one can win, it is not always worth it.
Anyone encouraging this young woman to bring a lawsuit is irresponsible to her.
PS. Just so we are clear, I am not ‘for’ assault. I know the court system.
Van Susteren reaffirmed her criticism on Twitter of “anyone encouraging” Fields to pursue this case, tweeting: “anyone advising her to drag herself thru the legal system by filing lawsuit is using her; anyone who has had ANY experience in criminal courts knew the DA would not prosecute Lewandowski based on that video.”
“Terrible that some in the media pushed her to this,” Van Susteren tweeted. She then doubled down on her criticism of those who encouraged Fields to prosecute: “Anyone in the media telling Michelle Fields to prosecute that claim was using her,” she asserted. “Any lawyer w/ ounce of experience knew the DA would not pursue case against Lewandowsky.”
“She is young and people w/ no experience encouraged her,” Van Susteren concluded.
Though Van Susteren didn’t name anyone in particular, her criticism was perhaps directed at individuals like former Breitbart columnist Ben Shapiro, who on March 2, declared on Megyn Kelly’s program that he had personally “encouraged” Fields to file a police report.
“I had a conversation with Michelle for an hour last night where she told me this whole story. I did encourage her to go to the police,” Shapiro said, adding, “I strongly urged her to go and file a police report.”
Shapiro, a Harvard Law School graduate, offered his legal analysis of the story last night on Twitter:
Van Susteren, who was always skeptical of Fields’ legal case, reminded people of her legal expertise, tweeting, “It was not brilliance that predicted DA would not prosecute Michelle Fields’ claims, it was experience.” She later added, “I have years of experience in courts–this is no surprise that DA would not prosecute this.”
Nicknaming the incident “grab-gate,” Van Susteren has long taken issue with the fact that the Fields-Lewandowski incident was being classified as a “crime.” On her April 1 episode of On the Record, Van Susteren said: “Now, whatever happened in the scrum, and I don’t think the video or eyewitness statement is convincing, this incident never should have ended up as a crime. It should have ended with an apology.”
Fields, for her part, responded to Van Susteren’s tweet last night, dismissing the advice and blasting the Fox News host as a “Trump shill.”
Van Susteren responded to the accusation, linking to a Politico article about it and tweeting: “Is everyone who disagrees w/ her, including the prosecutor who says no case a ‘Trump shill’ in her mind?”
According to a report in TheBlaze, Fields does indeed plan to pursue a civil lawsuit against both Lewandowski and Trump for defamation of her character.
Responding to someone’s suggestion that Lewandowski should file charges against Fields “for defamation and false accusation,” Van Susteren tweeted, “He should not sue either. He should likewise move on from this.”