House ethics probe finds Jamaal Bowman made 'misleading' statements after Capitol fire alarm went off

An investigation by the House Ethics Committee concluded that Rep. Jamaal Bowman's explanations for pulling the Capitol fire alarm in September were “misleading,” but could not investigate the matter further.

Bowman thrown away a fire alarm shortly before the House of Representatives passed an interim spending measure to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30. The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) said Bowman was not on his way to a vote, but to a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus when he pulled the fire alarm report.

Any further investigation into Bowman's conduct “would be moot,” as the House has already voted censorship the Democrat in early December, the committee he concluded in a press release.

“The OCE finds the explanation provided by Representative Bowman's official statement and those released by his staff to be less than credible or misleading,” the report said.

Bowman claimed he was in a rush to get to the vote when he raised the alarm.

“Today, as I was rushing to vote, I came to a door that is normally open for voting, but it wouldn't open today,” Bowman said. said in a statement issued after the incident.

The OCE described Bowman's actions and cited evidence from text messages around the time of the incident.

“Surveillance video obtained by the OCE shows Representative Bowman deliberately pulling the fire alarm lever without ever looking back to determine if the alarm facilitated the opening of the emergency doors,” he said the report

“More importantly, at the time of this incident, the House was suspended. Rep. Bowman, contrary to statements issued by his office, was addressing an emergency meeting of the (Democratic) Caucus, not to issue a vote imminent,” the report added. “At approximately 11:58 a.m., Representative Bowman received several messages via the private messaging app Signal from Chief of Staff Sarah Iddrissu alerting him to the emergency meeting. Ms. Iddrissu informed Representative Bowman that members were instructed to meet in room HVC215 in the US Capitol building.

Bowman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Latest messages from Harold Hutchison (see everything)

We have zero tolerance for comments that contain violence, racism, profanity, profanity, doxing, or rude behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it, click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for engaging with us in a fruitful conversation.