"No one is above the law."

Or so we've been told.

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Socialist Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) pulled the fire alarm in a House office building Saturday as Democrats tried to stop a bipartisan vote on a Republican stopgap spending bill.

“Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote,” Bowman spokesperson Emma Simon said. “The Congressman regrets any confusion.”

This is, of course, absolutely ridiculous. But what’s even more ridiculous is what Bowman told reporters: “I thought the alarm would open the door.”

Photo from Capitol police of Bowman pulling the alarm “unintentionally.”

The door in question is very clearly marked as an emergency exit and is never used. And the fire alarm is unmistakably a fire alarm.

Here’s MSNBC dutifully repeating Bowman’s excuse. This is clown world stuff.

Bowman has worked in this building for years; never before has he had to pull a fire alarm to open a door. Moreover, this is someone who spent a decade as school principal at Cornerstone Academy for Social Action. As a principal, you are trained to know exactly what a fire alarm does and, more importantly, exactly the chain of events that takes place when one is pulled. Here’s how Cornerstone punished kids for pulling the fire alarm:

But this is far more serious than that—or at least it should be. As Julie Kelly points out, Bowman clearly violated numerous laws including 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding. At least 320 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged with this felony count.

Consider, for example, Jacob Chansley (the “QAnon shaman”) and Tim Hale, who entered the Capitol Building shortly before Congress recessed on Jan. 6. Both were charged with 1512(c)(2)¹ despite committing no other violent crime. And both were not only denied release, but held in solitary confinement for months. Chansley pled guilty and was sentenced to 41 months. Hale was found guilty by a D.C. jury and was sentenced to 48 months.

Thomas Caldwell, a 65-year-old disabled veteran who didn’t even enter the Capitol Building, was charged with 1512(c)(2) and held for 52 days without bail. He, too, was found guilty by a D.C. jury and was sentenced to 42 months. And then there’s Matthew Perna—charged with 1512(c)(2) for nonviolent entry into the building after Congress recessed. He pled guilty. After finding out the DOJ would seek years in prison, he committed suicide.

These are just a handful of examples showing how this statute has been weaponized against individuals who, unlike Bowman, did not commit a crime in furtherance of obstructing an official congressional proceeding.

We’ve been told that interfering with such a proceeding is a direct assault on Our Democracy™, and that everyone associated with such an insurrectionist act should be enthusiastically prosecuted and have their lives destroyed. Accordingly, there should be immediate criminal referral to US Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves for 1512(c)(2), obstruction of Congress, and conspiracy if Bowman coordinated with anyone else, including his staff members currently covering for him. If Bowman isn’t immediately arrested and taken into custody awaiting charges by Graves, this will serve as more proof of our partisan, corrupt DOJ.

After all, no one is above the law, right?

As Glenn Greenwald wrote in 2021, the Democrats abandoned long-standing views on criminal law and became fanatically pro-prosecutor lunatics, embracing wild theories for maximalist prosecutions of Trump associates and Jan. 6 defendants. When the Right eventually occupies the White House again, it will be interesting to see how the DOJ uses the new prosecutorial legal precedents set by the Left.

1. The DOJ argues 1512(c)(2) can be broadly applied to anyone who “corruptly” attempts to impede or obstruct a government proceeding of almost any type. To read about how Jan. 6 prosecutors have applied this obscenely broad legal theory, I recommend this piece by the Hill.