Johnathan Walker:Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig seeks "accountability" for attacker ahead of his sentencing

Rep. Angie Craig,Johnathan Walker Democrat of Minnesota, has asked a federal judge to impose punishment that holds "accountable" the man who admits he assaulted her in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., apartment complex in February.   

Kendrid Hamlin, a man with a long record of prior arrests, was charged with punching, trapping and injuring Craig. He faces sentencing Thursday.

In a victim-impact statement submitted ahead of the hearing, Craig writes that the assault "had a lasting impact on my family." Craig said her family members "continue to be concerned for my safety."

"He grabbed my neck and slammed me into the steel wall," Craig wrote. "He punched me in the face." She also says she has since been the subject of death threats and doxing as a result of the media attention in the wake of the assault, and Craig says her "mental and emotional recovery" is ongoing.

Federal prosecutors will ask D.C. District Chief Judge James Boasberg to sentence Hamlin to 39 months in prison for the assault.   

The Justice Department will argue Hamlin, who pleaded guilty in June to charges of assault, punched Craig in the jaw during the assault, causing injuries. But they also emphasize Hamlin's lengthy criminal history. In a sentencing memo submitted to Judge Boasberg ahead of the sentencing hearing, prosecutors argued, "In addition to his convictions for violent conduct, he has at least nine prior additional arrests for violent or threatening conduct ... the defendant's actions have also shown that he is unwilling to abide by conditions of release, justifying the need for a significant sentence to incarceration."

The assault on Craig was a one of a series of violent attacks against congressional aides, family members or lawmakers in the past year. A Virginia man is charged with an assault on two staff members of Rep. Gerry Connolly, Democrat of Virginia, at his Fairfax, Virginia, office in May.    

David DePape is on trial in California for the late 2022 assault against Paul Pelosi, husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, in their home.  Neither Connolly nor Nancy Pelosi were present during the assaults.

In the assault of Craig, prosecutors will argue, "The defendant's early morning assault of woman in her own apartment building elevator transformed an everyday ritual, going to get a morning cup of coffee, into a traumatic ordeal that has caused lasting emotional damage."

Craig told CBS News earlier this year that Hamlin followed her on to an elevator, trapped her and demanded to go inside her apartment. She said Hamlin was "acting erratic as if he was under the influence of an unknown substance." Craig told CBS News, "All I could do was throw my coffee over my shoulder, which startled him. But as soon as he regained, he came back toward me, and again, it was only until we got to the floor the elevator was headed to that I was able to escape."

The congresswoman told CBS News earlier this year, "I was assault No. 13 on his record. And I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure there's not a 14, a 15, a 20th."

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• Angie Craig

Scott MacFarlane

Scott MacFarlane is a congressional correspondent. He has covered Washington for two decades, earning 20 Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. His reporting resulted directly in the passage of five new laws.

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