House Ethics Committee won’t pursue probe of Rep. Hank Johnson after his arrest at ‘Black Voters Matter’ protest
By Eugene Scott,
The House Ethics Committee announced Friday that it will not launch an investigation into the arrest this month of Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who was detained at a protest for voting rights legislation at the U.S. Capitol.
Johnson was one of 10 people U.S. Capitol police arrested last week for “unlawfully demonstrating” outside the Hart Senate Office Building and charged them all with “crowding, obstructing or incommoding.” In a video, participants were seen chanting “Whose streets? Our streets. Whose House? Our House.”
He was released following his arrest after paying a $50 fine. Legal proceedings are expected to be resolved without further action, and the committee decided to take no further action.
[Rep. Hank Johnson arrested at ‘Black Voters Matter’ protest for voting rights]
Three House Democrats have been arrested for protesting the lack of advancement in legislation ensuring voting rights.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was arrested earlier this month during a voting rights protest at the Hart Senate building. The lawmaker and other speakers at the protest were voicing their frustration with the Senate for not yet passing sweeping voting rights legislation approved by the House.
House Ethics declined to investigate Beatty.
[Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee arrested at voting rights protest on Capitol Hill]
On Thursday, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) was arrested during nonviolent protests aimed at rallying support for federal voting legislation that activists say is necessary to push back against new restrictive state laws.
“We pass the Voting Rights Act because my people in Texas are suffering, my people in Mississippi are suffering, my people in Georgia are suffering,” Jackson Lee said shortly before Capitol Police officers prepared to arrest her and six others who blocked the entrance to the Hart Senate building. “We are here to say that voting rights is a fundamental constitutional right. . . . We will not be moved.”
