A Vice Newsreporter was arrested for trespassing at a Donald Trump campaign event in Houston,video virus z police sex Vice reported on Saturday.
Alex Thompson, Vice Newspolitics and policy editor, was arrested by Houston Police at the Omni Houston Hotel at Westside on Saturday afternoon. Thompson is currently being held in Houston Central Jail.
Thompson was arrested while asking about press access to the event for the Republican presidential candidate, Vice says. Per Vice:
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VICE News requested access to the event earlier this week and was told by the Trump campaign that its status was "pending." Thompson entered the lobby of the Omni to ask members of Trump's communications staff whether a final decision on access had been made.
A man who identified himself as a hotel manager then asked Thompson to leave and warned that he would be arrested if he did not. Roughly two minutes later, without further warning and while Thompson was waiting for a member of Trump's staff to clarify his access to the event, he was arrested by Houston Police, handcuffed, and escorted outside. Thompson spoke with his editors while handcuffed and said that he was never given any opportunity to explain himself to police.
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A spokesman for the Houston Police Department said that Thompson "refused" to leave the hotel and "told hotel employees they would have to have him arrested because he was not leaving."
Hotel managers asked Houston police to make the arrest, the police department said.
The Trump campaign said in a statement that they were not involved in the arrest and said "event organizers" were responsible for interacting with media Saturday.
"The campaign was not involved in this incident or aware of the details surrounding it. The event organizers were responsible for today's media presence and requested the campaign limit attendance to the traveling pool," the campaign said in a statement. "The campaign had no staff presence at check-in for guests or media and therefore has no further knowledge of what occurred."
The event, billed as a private lunch, was held by The Remembrance Project, a group that opposes illegal immigration.
The event attracted about a dozen protesters outside the hotel, according to the Houston Chronicle.