A Democratic lawmaker in the United States was fined after admitting to intentionally setting off an alarm in Congress, forcing the evacuation of the building before an important vote.
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Jamaal Bowman admitted the facts on Wednesday in a Washington court, where he agreed to pay a $1,000 fine and write a letter of apology to law enforcement in exchange for dropping the charges against him, as According to court documents and a press release from this federal elected official, this is a constituency in New York State.
Bowman, a 47-year-old former school principal, said he was on his way to the House of Representatives to watch the Sept. 30 vote on legislation to prevent a federal budget shutdown when he hit an alarm to open a door, which he couldn’t get through to open.
The events were recorded by a video surveillance camera. The building was evacuated for an hour.
The Republicans, who are the majority in the House of Representatives, one of the two chambers of Congress next to the Senate, accuse him of knowingly trying to prevent the vote and have pledged to strip him of his roles in parliamentary committees.
Mr. Bowman, known for his progressive positions and verbal altercations with his Republican opponents in the halls of Congress, said he was grateful that police had concluded he was “not interfering with a House vote or operations.” have or did not want to hinder”. the representative.
For his part, the leader of the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, criticized Republicans’ criticism of Jamaal Bowman when he “defended or refused to comment on the attack on the Capitol by Donald supporters on January 6, 2021.” Trump wants to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.