Rep. Jamaal Bowman has been criminally charged for pulling the fire alarm during a vote in the House of Representatives that would have prevented a government shutdown.
The New York Democrat called the allegations deliberate “complete nonsense” and thought he was opening a door.
But now Capitol Police have referred him to prosecutors, who have convicted him of a misdemeanor and ordered him to appear in court.
The Sept. 30 incident occurred in the Cannon House Office Building and sparked calls among Republicans to expel him from Congress.
The charge was “intentionally and knowingly.” [giving] “A false fire alarm, a violation of D.C. law,” and the New York Democrat was ordered to appear in court for arraignment on Thursday.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman was charged with a misdemeanor for pulling the fire alarm during a vote in the House of Representatives
He has said he will pay a $1,000 fine and formally apologize to the Capitol Police in exchange for the charges being dropped.
“I am responsible for setting off a fire alarm, I will pay the fine imposed and I look forward to this charge being finally dropped,” he said in a statement.
The Capitol Police have now completed their investigation into the Sept. 30 incident, which Bowman’s office called a mistake.
“We have completed our investigation. “Our agents collected all evidence, packaged it and sent the entire case and charges to prosecutors for review,” it said in a statement.
Bowman, a former school principal, said he raised the alarm as he tried to open a door in a hurry to get to a vote.
However, the incident occurred as Democrats tried to delay voting on a bill to extend the government funding deadline and avert a government shutdown.
Democratic Rep. Jamal Bowman says claims he intentionally set off a fire alarm to disrupt House Republicans as they debated a stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown are “nonsense.”
“I thought the alarm would open the door,” Bowman told reporters about the incident.
“I was in a rush to vote, I was trying to get to a door.”
‘[Bowman] “A fire alarm was sounded in Cannon this morning,” a spokesman for the Congressional Administration Committee said. “An investigation into why it was withdrawn is ongoing.”
Bowman called the idea that he pulled the fire alarm to delay a vote “complete nonsense.”
Rep. Bryan Steil, chairman of the House Administration Committee, said of the prosecution, “Bowman’s apology fails the sniff test.” After pulling the fire alarm, Rep. Bowman fled the scene, passing several Capitol Police officers and having every opportunity “To alert USCP to its mistake.”
Bowman’s stunt angered Republicans, and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., drafted a resolution to expel him.
But the House’s impact on Bowman was negated by the ouster of Kevin McCarthy and the ensuing three-week stalemate in the search for a speaker.
After former Speaker McCarthy decided to introduce a last-minute clear continuing resolution (CR) to the House of Representatives that would extend funding at the levels set by Speaker Nancy Pelosi through 2023, Democrats feared they had been outwitted.
They wanted more time to read the document before voting on it – but they had to vote on it that day, September 30, to avert a government shutdown. That’s where Bowman’s move, which Republicans claim was intended to thwart the vote, came into play.
Republicans had spent almost the last minute trying to pass an internal party CR that included drastic funding cuts and border security provisions. But with 21 Republicans opposed to that plan on Friday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy finally had enough and agreed to bring to the table a clean funding extension that had Democratic support — and didn’t include conservative priorities.
He would always have had to bring a bipartisan deal to the table in the end for it to pass the Senate, but a Republican-only deal would have been a measurable win in spending cuts and could have been a starting point for negotiations.