Donald Trump’s campaign faces controversy again a week after campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned amid accusations of his pro-Russian ties in Ukraine. Citing court documents it obtained, the New York Post is reporting that Trump’s new campaign CEO Stephen K. Bannon was once charged with domestic violence.
The Post reported Banon and his then-wife, who Complex is not naming, got into an altercation on Jan. 1, 1996. Bannon grabbed the woman “by the throat and arm,” according to documents from the couple's 1996 divorce proceedings. Police responded and wrote up a report, photographing her injuries. According to Politico, the police report from the incident (which can be seen here) had one officer noting "red marks on her neck and wrist."
From the documents:
“I took the phone to call the police and he grabbed the phone away from me throwing it across the room, and breaking it as he [was] screaming that I was a ‘crazy f—ing c–t!”
After the incident, the woman claims Bannon's lawyer "threatened" her with financial ruin if she brought the case to trial, and Bannon told her to leave town.
“He also told me that if I went to court he and his attorney would make sure that I would be the one who was guilty. I was told that I could go anywhere in the world.”
She did leave, and the case was dismissed.
The divorce documents have Bannon demanding proof that his soon-to-be-born twin daughters were "normal" before agreeing to marry. They also mention that he used corporal punishment on the twins. In addition, the original police report of the 1996 incident has his then-wife saying that this was not the first time Bannon had turned violent. The report mentions her talking about "3 or 4" earlier incidents that "became physical."
Bannon and his then-wife divorced in August, 1996.
This is not the first time someone in the Trump campaign has gotten in trouble for alleged assault. Ousted Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski put the campaign in hot water after he was charged with battery for grabbing a reporter’s arm at a campaign rally this past March. Those charges were eventually dropped.
