The Republican candidate in Montana's special congressional election allegedly body slammed a reporter and broke his glasses on Wednesday night, according to an audio recording of the event and eyewitness accounts.
The altercation, which took place at Greg Gianforte's campaign headquarters in Bozeman, Montana, took place the night before the state's special election.
The Gallatin County Sheriff's Office said it was conducting an ongoing investigation into "allegations of an assault involving Greg Gianforte," but didn't provide further details.
Ben Jacobs, a political reporter for the Guardian, said he had been asking Gianforte about the Republican healthcare plan when the candidate "body slammed" him and began shouting, "Get the hell out of here."
"He took me to the ground," Jacobs told his paper. "This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in reporting on politics."
The audio file provided by Jacobs backs up his account of the incident.
GOP candidate allegedly 'body slams' Guardian reporter - May. 24, 2017