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It's one of those unfortunate lay/legal splits. "Assault" has come to mean in regular parlance hitting someone. It's legal definition involves only the threat or attempt to hit someone without actually succeeding in doing so (which is legally called battery). So, they're being accurate, but most people don't realize they mean different things. They ought to be more specific, though, since they're painting him in a rather poor light the way the headlines read.
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