RachelRamone Donlan participates in a die-in outside Maryland Congressman Andy Harris’ office on the day of the incident in question. (Photo courtesy of DCMJ)

Maryland Congressman Andy Harris wrote an op-ed saying that “pot-smoking agitators burst into my office,” but now, one of those protesters has filed an assault claim against Harris and calling for the House of Representatives to look into the incident.

On October 2, RachelRamone Donlan was one of a handful of protesters with DC Marijuana Justice and Maryland Marijuana Justice who went to Harris’ office on Capitol Hill. Marijuana legalization and D.C. autonomy advocates often target Harris because the Maryland Republican has long fought decriminalization, and a tax and regulatory scheme for cannabis in the District. Some have even moved to Maryland’s first district to become his constituent.

“We had planned to try to visit Andy Harris’ office once again after years of trying,” says Donlan, who moved to D.C. in October 2017 after coming here on a monthly basis to advocate on behalf of marijuana legalization. “It seemed like he wanted to meet with me because he said so at the town hall meeting in August. He said he would talk to me ‘offline,’ so out of respect, I again came to his office to plan a meeting and was then treated with disrespect.”

Donlan is a 90 pound, 46-year-old woman with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that she says leaves her with “excruciating pain,” for which she uses marijuana to medicate.

Videos show Donlan chasing after Harris as he enters his office, after which she and other protesters gather outside the door. Harris claims it was a mob and that he injured his wrist while barricading himself inside, while Donlan and others say they were peaceful.

Videos from the scene don’t include views of the crowd, though they do show Donlan trying to open the door.

“I was walking and they closed the door behind me,” she says in the video. “My foot’s stuck. Can I please come in?” Donlan says she recieved bruises to her knee, leg, and foot as a result of the door slamming shut.

In his Wall Street Journal op-ed the following day, Harris wrote that he was physically confronted by “aggressive, pot-smoking agitators … They attempted to shove open a private door, throwing their shoulders into it and injuring my wrist in the process (thank goodness not seriously). Some from the crowd were arrested.” He described the incident in more detail in a press release:

After I was physically confronted by protestors attempting to physically force their way through a private doorway into my office in Washington, D.C., the same violent protesters then attempted to forcibly open the main door to the office … In potentially dangerous situations like this, especially when a physical confrontation has already occurred, staff and Members of Congress are instructed by the Sergeant at Arms and the Capitol police to immediately lock down the entire office suite, and to call for Capitol police support. And that’s exactly what my staff did, despite the efforts of the protesters to force the second door open as well … Yesterday’s events were truly shocking, and I strongly condemn those who promote physical confrontation as an appropriate response or solution to policy disagreements.

Harris’ office declined to comment beyond pointing to the press release and Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Donlan’s lawyer, Mark Goldstone, says that the physical aggressiveness came from the congressman, not Donlan. “He slammed the door on her on two occasions while she was protesting,” says Goldstone. “One caused injury to her leg, the other caused injury to her foot. She’s concerned about that, of course, and the precedent about having a congressman lock her out.”

Additionally, while Donlan and fellow protester Kris Furnish were arrested by Capitol Police that day, it was for public consumption of marijuana rather than any violent crime. The two lit up cannabis joints in the hallway after the incident, “which we did as a symbol of bringing new light to the opioid epidemic, where people feel like they have no choice but to turn to pharmaceuticals for pain relief,” according to Donlan. “I have several friends who passed away from opioid epidemic and dozens and dozens of friends who have been addicted.”

At D.C. Superior Court on October 18, Donlan and Furnish each received a sentence of a three-month stay away order from Capitol Hill unless they have an appointment with a Congressional member or staffer.

Goldstone has filed what’s called Form 95, which he sent out on Tuesday. That form is used to present claims against any federal government employee for property damage, personal injury, or death. In addition to damages over her leg and foot injuries, Goldstone says that Donlan is seeking political remedies in the form of a public apology and a meeting about medical marijuana.

“She feels like her reputation as a non-violent, principled, medical marijuana activist who has a disease is being damaged by a congressman saying she is part of a violent mob or violent protest,” says Goldstone. After the House of Representatives receives the claim, it will assign counsel to review it.

He adds that Harris’ tweet opened up Donlan and other protesters to “some unhinged person [that] can do something really horrible,” citing the Virginia county supervisor who tweeted a since-deleted joke about shooting the protesters outside Harris’ office. “With one reload I can take 34 of them, but my guess is that one will be sufficient,” Goochland County Supervisor Manuel Alvarez Jr. wrote. (He has since apologized.)

But Goldstone asks, “Once you open up the bottle, can you really put the genie back in a bottle? We’re in an environment where, if you’re protesting, you’re now linked with violence and the mob.”

This post has been updated to reflect that Goldstone has filed the Form 95.