Florida prosecutors on Thursday dropped charges against Donald Trump’s campaign manager, saying the strong-armed operative had Secret Service-like authority to keep The Donald in a “protective bubble.”

Corey Lewandowski had been charged with misdemeanor battery for grabbing the arm of Michelle Fields, then a reporter for conservative Breitbart News, at a March 8 campaign event.

“Mr. Lewandowski may have had apparent authority to assist in the protection of the candidate, specifically to maintain the ‘protective bubble’ around the candidate,” Chief Assistant State Attorney Adrienne Ellis wrote.

“While the facts support the allegation that Mr. Lewandowski did grab Ms. Fields’ arm against her will, Mr. Lewandowski has a reasonable hypothesis of innocence.”

Prosecutors maintained they did not err in originally charging Lewandowski with a crime.

Lewandowski could have ended the case weeks earlier by simply apologizing to Fields, State Attorney Dave Aronberg said.

“In a case like this, we do encourage an apology,” Aronberg said. “Had an apology been given at the beginning of all this, we could have avoided the whole criminal-justice process.”