There is one video where you see him reaching for her while she is moving right to left in the frame and her progress stops abruptly and she seems to be pulled back a bit. At the same moment, his movement tracks hers in a way that suggests he stopped her and held her back/pulled her. Very hard to tell how hard he pulled, how hard his grip, etc.
As a lawyer, I can say that, outside the sphere of a setting where each person is engaged in a particular role (a bouncer and patron, eg., event security and concertgoer, eg., security at political event, eg. policeman and suspect), assault is any unwanted contact. Each of the situations that permit some level of unwanted contact is a universe of its own defined by the reasonableness of the contact or force used. I have no idea how this fits on the scale, but it is probably a lot smarter for a senior campaign staffer not to do the touching in the first place. Overall, I’d say he did a no-no but its being blown out of proportion.
“Each of the situations that permit some level of unwanted contact is a universe of its own defined by the reasonableness of the contact or force used. I have no idea how this fits on the scale, but it is probably a lot smarter for a senior campaign staffer not to do the touching in the first place.”
Good point. When there’s a sliding scale of acceptability, it’s better to aim for the “zero” end.