The D.C. attorney general has charged Rep. Jamaal Bowman with a misdemeanor for triggering a Capitol campus fire alarm last month — causing a lengthy evacuation of a House office building during intense negotiations over a government funding bill.
The charging documents conclude there was “probable cause to believe that the defendant willfully or knowingly gave a false fire alarm within the District of Columbia.”
Bowman is slated to be arraigned Thursday morning in D.C. Superior Court. It’s unclear if federal prosecutors are reviewing the matter as well.
Capitol Police disclosed earlier Wednesday that the department had referred him to prosecutors over the incident after conducting an investigation. Bowman (D-N.Y.) pulled a fire alarm during the chaotic leadup to a vote on a GOP stopgap funding bill at the end of September in what his office had described as a mistake, driven by the congressman rushing to the vote. Republicans were incensed and some had threatened to move to expel Bowman from the House.
