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You've conveniently left out the 1 word that could exonerate Bowman. The relevant text is this:
So the law does not apply to Bowman if he can make a convincing case it was an innocent mistake (which is of course exactly what he is now claiming). It makes sense that the law is qualified this way, otherwise a janitor accidentally triggering the fire alarm could go to jail for 20 years.
"Corruptly" also requires something more than an intentional or knowing act. Eg, the Fifth Circuit's pattern jury instructions say that the general rule is that "An act is “corruptly” done if it is done intentionally with an unlawful purpose." Re obstruction of judicial administration, it means "the defendant acted knowingly and dishonestly, with the specific intent to subvert or undermine the due administration of justice."
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I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
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The claim “I didn’t realize a fire alarm would set off an alarm” is pretty weak.
Of course, I have a strong prior that Bowman is an ass so I’m predisposed to disbelieve him. But…who has ever seen a red box clearly labeled fire alarm and thought “I should pull this to open a door” before even trying to open a door? No, the excuse is so lame that I believe at a “beyond a reasonable doubt” Bowman did it to interfere with Congress. At minimum, he should be expelled because even if his defense is correct then he is too stupid to be a congressmen.
That's not what he said. He said: “I was trying to get to a door. I thought the alarm would open the door, and I pulled the fire alarm to open the door by accident.”
That's also questionable (if you pulled the alarm because you thought that would open the door then you didn't do it by accident) but the point is: he doesn't deny intentionally triggering the fire alarm, but he claims his intent was to open the door, not to prevent the vote. And that seems at least possible. On twitter I saw this image of the location with a sign that reads:
(But note that in the still of Bowman pulling the alarm that sign seems to be missing! Which maybe explains why he pulled the fire alarm lever on the wall instead of pushing the exit bars as the instructions by the door suggest.)
This does make it sound like you can open the door by setting of the fire alarm (which also makes logical sense), though it's pretty clear you're only supposed to do that in case of an emergency. Maybe Bowman thought that the alarm would be local and he could just shut it off after opening the door, or maybe he knew the building would be evacuated but thought nobody would know he was the one that triggered the alarm. Either way, it doesn't show that he pulled the alarm in order to delay the vote happening at the Capitol.
The evidence against an intentional action is this:
This only makes sense in the context the lawmaker tried to open the door and it was locked. Is there any evidence to support that?
Note reports circulated yesterday that the Dems wanted to slow it down a bit to be able to read the CR. So there was motive.
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No one should expect criminal charges short of Bowman writing a confession in someone else's blood. It's more just funny to watch how many pundits are willing to admit they can't read, for a defense no one cares about, over a matter that's got never going to cost their side a thing.
The complexity of proving motive in honest cases is difficult (though there's been no shortage of cases where that bar gets set pretty low!), but
And there's a much more straight-forward local charge for pulling a fire alarm outside of an emergency, which he also won't be facing.
I don't think incompetence is particularly effective as a defense, but separately a number of Representatives were working from that building (including Bowman).
At the time Bowman pulled the alarm at 12:05PM, (which we know some House Reps 'panicked' over), House Democratic leadership was asking for more time to review the bill. Which doesn't mean that the alarm would have worked for that purpose, or even that Bowman (correctly or incorrectly) suspected it would, but it's not so clear that there's no possible motive.
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You can also see the fire alarm in that image. It's bright red and says "FIRE".
This is no doubt evidence that could be brought up, however it would also make logical sense to me that the whole Hill would be evacuated/go into lockdown in the event of an unplanned fire alarm in one of the complex's buildings.
I read somewhere (I don't remember where), that the motive could have been to buy time to actually read the bill. Which, honestly, is a great motive. I'd be in favor of multiple hours-long fire drills so that they would actually read every stupid 2000-page bill they put up for a vote. However I don't expect Bowman to be pulling the fire alarm next time the Democrats try to quickly ram through a bill.
The discussion isn't about whether or not he set off the fire alarm (he clearly did) but whether he did it with the intent to prevent/delay the vote on the funding bill happening in the nearby Capitol building. That's not so clear.
Maybe Bowman will eventually admit something along the lines of “I set off the fire alarm because I was in a rush to leave the building” which is pretty bad (and probably against some law or other) but it's an order of magnitude better than “I set off the fire alarm because I wanted to stop congress from voting on a bill”, which makes him guilty of a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison as a penalty.
For Bowman this doesn't strike me as a great reason to risk 20 years imprisonment, which honestly makes me think it's more likely the “I was in a hurry to leave the building” excuse is genuine.
Was the door locked? Did he try to open it before he literally pulled a fire alarm?
Why not take the tunnels instead of pulling a fire alarm?
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The obviousness of it being a fire alarm speaks to intent, I would think. Unless the defense is "I'm a huge idiot who doesn't know what a fire alarm is". If it was some special gold-plated Capitol Hill fire alarm variant I could believe it was unintentional. But it is a totally standard fire alarm you'd see all over the country.
As to the rest of your post, the real issue here is that only the left receives this much charity from the legal system and the mainstream media.
I'm starting to think you're trolling me, but in the interest of assuming good faith, I'll say for the third and final time: the question isn't whether he had the intent to set off the fire alarm but whether he set off the fire alarm with the intent to stop the vote.
It only speaks to an intent to set off the fire alarm, not an intent to disrupt an official proceeding. The question is: why did he set off the fire alarm? Three options:
You can say the obviousness of the fire alarm makes option 1 unlikely (and I mostly agree) but it does not prove option 3 over 2.
Yes, that's a problem, but that doesn't prove the intent of Bowman.
Maybe it makes sense for the Republicans to assume the worst because when it came to the January 6th protesters the Democrats assumed the worst, but here on this forum we are not active participants in the culture war, we're only discussing it. I think the Jan 6 protesters were judged much too harshly, but I'm also willing to entertain the notion that Bowman is just a dumbass who was in a rush (option 2), rather than a man intent on undermining American democracy (option 3).
Is there any evidence that Bowman was facing time pressure? The relevant questions are:
Did Bowman try the door prior to pulling the alarm?
How quickly did Bowman need to get to the house?
Were there other routes that would’ve taken the same time (eg the tunnels) without causing the obvious disruption?
Seems like those should be answered prior to granting Bowman charity. I don’t think Bowman is a high character guy given him almost assaulting Massie so I am biased against Bowman but it still — without more evidence really strains credulity that someone thought “I need to get to the house so let me pull this fire alarm to get out of here faster.” the thought process is just so foreign to me.
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Just to push back on the idea that this action doesn’t point to three over two, I’ll point out that I’ve never seen a situation in which one would pull a fire alarm for the purpose of gaining access to a building. There are cases where security requires that you push a button so that they can buzz you through security, but even then, it’s never a fire alarm. It’s a security call button of some sort.
Thus it seems really odd that anyone would rationally decide that one should open a door by pulling a fire alarm. It makes sense to pull the alarm to empty a building or prevent people from speaking or otherwise disrupt.
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I agree with you. I’m sorry it sounds like I’m trolling. gattsuru has worded the point better than I can, though he can laugh at the double standard while I find it profoundly black-pilling. There’s nothing more depressing than a one-sided “justice system”. This fire alarm situation will soon be memory-holed and Bowman will face zero consequences. Meanwhile there are peaceful protestors facing 20 years in prison and the only difference is their politics. I’d like to be principled and treat Bowman as an idiot that made an accident, but that’s suicidal at this point.
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poor eyesight? nerves? in extreme hurry? This would make it relatively believable to me.
I’ve been in a hurry before. I don’t think I’ve ever mistook a red fire alarm for a button to unlock a door.
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