Rep. Trey Radel of Florida to take leave of absence after guilty plea to cocaine charge
Video: Florida Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) was arrested last month for buying cocaine. Here’s what you need to know about the freshman congressman.
Late on a Tuesday evening, at a Dupont Circle bistro that serves $11 mojitos, the congressman and the undercover officer talked about cocaine.
They talked about how much the congressman would have to pay for it. They talked about the quality of the drug for sale. Finally, they made a deal: $250 for 3.5 grams, an amount generally bought for personal use.
Outside, in a car, the drug and money changed hands. And then, suddenly, there were feds outside the vehicle.
Before that moment, Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) had built a remarkable double life in Washington — and built it in record time.
Wednesday night, less than a month after his arrest, hours after he had pleaded guilty to a drug charge, he announced he is taking a “leave of absence” from Congress.
He had been in Congress just 10 months when the arrest came. But he already had made a name in the House as an energetic and media-savvy freshman, willing to battle party elders to cut spending.
And, in the same 10 months, he also had become connected to the city’s drug trade: Court documents say he bought cocaine on several occasions. Radel, it turned out, had managed to attract the attention of the Capitol press corps and the Drug Enforcement Administration before Congress even took its Thanksgiving break.
With that purchase in Dupont Circle on Oct. 29, Radel could no longer keep his two lives separate.
On Wednesday, the 37-year-old lawmaker pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor drug-possession charge in D.C. Superior Court. He was sentenced to one year of probation and will undergo substance abuse treatment in Florida.
In the late-night announcement of his planned leave Wednesday night, he seemed determined not to resign.
“I’m sorry. I have no excuse for what I’ve done. . . . I’ve let down our constituents, I’ve let down my family,” he said in an emotional 10:30 p.m. news conference from one of his offices in Florida. “I’ve let down my wife, and although he doesn’t know it, I’ve let down our 2-year-old son.”
Prosecutors said Wednesday that Radel did not receive special leniency because of his position. He was charged with a misdemeanor, they said, because D.C. law classifies simple possession of any drug — except PCP — as a misdemeanor. If prosecutors thought that Radel had intended to sell the drug, he would have been charged with a felony.
Charging documents say that Radel bought cocaine “for his personal use and also, on occasion, [to] share it with others.”
William Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said Radel received the same punishment as many other people facing the same charge. In 2012, he said, nearly 700 people were charged with misdemeanor cocaine possession in the District.
“Only a small fraction received any jail time as a result,” Miller wrote in an e-mail.
Radel is a former TV anchor and conservative radio host who grew up in Cincinnati as the son of a funeral-home director. He is married to former TV journalist Amy Wegmann Radel. They have a young son.
Radel was elected by a wide margin last fall, taking a seat left open when longtime Rep. Connie Mack (R) ran for the Senate.
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Rep. Trey Radel of Florida to take leave of absence after guilty plea to cocaine charge Updated at :
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Thursday, November 21, 2013
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