Onetime Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was allegedly assaulted in a non-injury confrontation during a flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles this week, but the former Massachusetts governor on Tuesday said he would decline to press charges.

The scuffle happened Monday as the governor was heading home from watching the Winter Olympics. As an 11 a.m. Air Canada flight was taking off, a passenger in front of his wife had his seat reclined — against regulations. The governor asked the man to put it upright, and he allegedly attacked Romney, nearly striking him, before he was subdued by flight-crew members.

The attacker had become “physically violent” toward Romney, but the governor was not injured, his spokesperson told reporters.

The pilot headed back to Vancouver, where the suspect was arrested by Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But he was let go and allowed to board another flight, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Romney, who was CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics, is seen as a possible Republican frontrunner for the 2012 presidential election, at least if his own, self-congratulatory Wiki entry is to be believed.

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