A Vice News reporter was arrested and held for 11 hours after seeking information about press credentials at a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Houston.
Alex Thompson arrested on Saturday afternoon and was charged with trespassing. He was released on $500 bond from Houston Central Jail just after midnight Sunday morning.
The Trump campaign issued a statement saying it had nothing to do with Thompson's arrest and "not involved in this incident or aware of the details surrounding it. The event organizers were responsible for today's media presence and request the campaign limit attendance to the traveling pool.
"The campaign had no staff presence at check-in for guests or media and therefore has no knowledge of what occurred," the campaign said in a statement.
Vice News released a video of Thompson speaking to officers at his arrest.
Thompson, Vice News producer Kathleen Caulderwood, and a camera operator entered the Omni Westside Hotel to clarify press access to the Trump luncheon, an event held by the Remembrance Project, a Houston nonprofit that supports families of victims killed by undocumented immigrants.
A Remembrance Project staff member told Thompson to wait in the lobby, then hotel management asked him and the Vice crew to leave the premises. Caulderwood and the camera operator exited to film a protest outside, while Thompson stayed in the lobby.
A hotel manager then asked Thompson, "Were you asked to leave and did you come back?" Thompson explained that he was a reporter waiting for clarification about his press credentials, and that he had not left and returned. The hotel manager told Thompson he would be arrested if he stayed, then walked away.
A few minutes later, Vice News reports, the manager instructed a police officer to arrest Thompson. The Houston Police Department issued a statement that said Thompson left the hotel, then returned and refused to leave.
Vice News reported that Thompson was not given the opportunity to explain himself to police or to counter the hotel manager's account of the story. He also was not read his Miranda rights, which are a federal requirement to let suspects know of their right to remain silent.
Thompson asked why he was not being read his rights, and one officer said that he was not required to do so. "This is Houston," an officer said.
Houston Police declined to comment on the arrest.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, for whom Thompson was an assistant before getting a job with Vice News, pointed out in a tweet that the same day the reporter was arrested Trump threatened to sue her newspaper and slammed her as "a neurotic dope" and a "crazy" and "wacky" journalist as part of an ongoing feud.
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