Gianforte expected to meet with reporter he body-slammed after recess

Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) is expected to meet with the reporter he body-slammed on the eve of the Montana special election once the Congressional recess concludes.

“We’ve been in discussions for several weeks with Ben [Jacobs] to make this meeting happen with Greg,” Gianforte’s communications director, Travis Hall, told The Washington Post. “We’ve offered times to Ben to sit down with Greg when the House reconvenes after the district work period.”

Gianforte reportedly told Jacobs at his sentencing proceeding that he looked “forward to sitting down with” the reporter, who declined to sue the congressman in exchange for a donation from Gianforte to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

{mosads}Jacobs had said at Gianforte’s sentencing that he hoped to interview the congressman, which he sought to do when Gianforte body-slammed him on the eve of the election.

“Ben Jacobs first reached out to Congressman Gianforte for an on-the-record interview on June 22 and has been in ongoing communication with his office since then,” a spokesman for The Guardian, where Jacobs works, told the Post.

“So far, the Congressman has yet to commit to this interview. However, in light of his promise to sit down for an interview with Ben in the courtroom before being sentenced on June 12, we fully expect the Congressman to be a man of his word.”

The Post noted the difference in language between Jacobs’s desire for an interview and Gianforte’s wish for a “meeting.”

“A body slam, a false statement, not to mention the failed Republican attempt to repeal-and-replace Obamacare: These are all issues that Gianforte would presumably prefer to address off the record or not at all,” the Post’s media reporter, Erik Wemple, wrote.