Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman (NY) entered a guilty plea on Thursday after he was charged with one misdemeanor for falsely pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building last month.
Bowman’s actions have been heavily criticized by his political opponents as it came moments before a key house vote to keep the government funded.
Appearing in D.C. Superior Court on Thursday, a day after he was charged, Bowman agreed to plead guilty, pay a $1,000 fine, and write an apology to the Capitol Police in a deal struck with prosecutors, Reuters reported.
The deal will then see prosecutors rescind the charge in three months at a court hearing set for Jan. 29, 2024.
Since the incident occurred and the video of it was shared online, Bowman has insisted that it was an accident. Before he entered his plea, he told reporters that he felt good and was one step closer to moving past the mistake.
“I really regret that this caused so much confusion and that people had to evacuate, and I just caused a disturbance. I hate that. It’s pretty embarrassing,” Bowman said.
The incident occurred hours before the government ran out of funding and before the House voted to pass a stopgap measure to provide funding and keep the government open.
After pulling the alarm, Bowman failed to tell officers that it was him, according to prosecutors. The building was also forced to be evacuated, NBC News Reported.
Prosecutors shared on Thursday that while the case wasn’t going to trial if it had, they would have shown Bowman pulled the fire alarm “even though he knew at that time there was no fire or other emergency,” The Hill reported.
Republicans maintain that the incident was intentional and that Bowman was trying to sabotage the vote. However, Bowman denies any such intention.
“I said, from the very beginning, I was not trying to disrupt any congressional proceedings. I’m glad that the investigation yielded that,” Bowman said. “And so it was against D.C. law, and I got to take responsibility for it, which I’m here to do.”
Some have even called for him to be expelled from the House.
When asked what would happen if he faced an investigation in the House, Bowman said that Republicans “have to do what they have to do. I’ve been cooperating from the very beginning.”