This past weekend, as members of Congress were staying to vote on a continuing resolution to avert a possible government shutdown, Representative Jamaal Bowman, from New York, was captured on video camera in the federal Cannon Building appearing to pull a red and clearly-labeled fire alarm. Bowman’s excuse, per his office, was that he was in a hurry and the notion of a push-bar exit door confused and disoriented him at the time.

Triggering a false fire alarm in a federal building is a violation of 18 USC 1512(c) and can carry with it a punishment of up to $10,000 in fines and a prison sentence of up to six months. Bowman could, however, be in even deeper legal trouble for subverting an official government proceeding, which is a felony that can carry a maximum of twenty years in prison. This is, by the way, the same statue that DC prosecutors and Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice are using against citizen rioters who breached the capitol building on January 6, 2021.

In March of this year, Bowman posted to his Twitter account, “No one in this country is above the law — including former president Trump.”