The House Ethics Committee will not initiate a probe into Rep. Jamaal Bowman after the New York Democrat pulled a Capitol fire alarm in September as his party attempted to stall a vote over a stopgap government funding bill, the panel announced on Wednesday, Politico reported.
The D.C. Attorney General charged Bowman with a misdemeanor last month over the incident, which automatically set in motion the Ethics panel's process for investigating a congressman.
But the Ethics Committee, which is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, voted not to set up an investigative subpanel or deliver a report to the full House.
"A majority of the members of the committee did not agree to establish an [Investigative Subcommittee] or report to the House regarding Representative Bowman's conduct," said Ethics Chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., and ranking member Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa.
Bowman has said that he did not intend to obstruct or delay congressional proceedings when he triggered the alarm, as many Republican critics have charged was the reason for his action.
Bowman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to triggering the false fire alarm and agreed to pay the maximum fine of $1,000, in addition to writing a letter of apology to the U.S. Capitol Police chief, the Washington Examiner reported.
In exchange, the charge against the congressman will be dismissed at the end of three months, so long as he does not break any more laws during that time.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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