EGN NEWS DESK
A Florida man was arrested Monday after a bodily altercation at an early voting website in Pinellas County over the weekend involving the marketing campaign manager of U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.
Andrew Francis, 32, was arrested for easy battery – a misdemeanor – on Monday night, in line with Pinellas County Jail information.
Francis allegedly struck the girl along with his shoulder outdoors the county courthouse in Clearwater on Saturday, which was one of many early voting websites within the space, FOX 13 Tampa Bay reported.
Though the girl wasn’t recognized by regulation enforcement, Luna mentioned on her marketing campaign social media accounts that the sufferer is her marketing campaign manager.
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Clearwater police informed the native outlet that Francis “made quite a few aggressive actions and used verbal obscenities towards an opposing political group” whereas strolling towards the crosswalk outdoors the courthouse earlier than midday on Saturday.
He allegedly got here in touch with two folks from the opposing political group and “deliberately struck the sufferer along with his shoulder, inflicting the sufferer to lose her stability,” an arrest affidavit reviewed by FOX 13 mentioned.
The incident between Francis and Rep. Luna’s marketing campaign manager occurred outdoors the Pinellas County Courthouse in Clearwater, Florida, on Saturday. (REUTERS/Octavio Jones)
Luna, who’s up for re-election and working towards Whitney Fox, blamed her opponent’s “irresponsible and determined rhetoric” for the assault on her marketing campaign manager.
“This is the person that assaulted my feminine marketing campaign manager. He has been arrested! He shook arms with Whitney Fox’s father earlier than assaulting my CM. It’s on the footage. Whitney Fox’s irresponsible and determined rhetoric is what induced this,” Luna wrote on Facebook.
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U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., (left) who’s working for re-election in Florida’s thirteenth Congressional district, blamed her opponent Whitney Fox (proper) for the assault on her marketing campaign manager. (House of Representatives / Whitney Fox for Congress)
In a press release to Fox News Digital, Fox mentioned that the incident involving Luna’s staffer was “disheartening” and he or she “expressed [her] concern for her well-being to her personally.” She added that it’s “reckless” for Luna to “falsely declare that this has something to do with me or my marketing campaign.”
“It’s essential that we discover methods to show down the temperature in American politics. My personal father was just lately threatened with an axe whereas canvassing. The chaos and division should finish, as conditions like this have develop into all too frequent,” she mentioned.
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Francis was launched from jail at 12:42 a.m. on Tuesday after posting his $500 bond.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office for a press release.
