A GOP congressman running for governor in Florida who has opposed marijuana legalization in the state and sponsored federal legislation to upend a Washington, D.C. sentencing reform law has admitted for the first time that he was arrested for selling cannabis as a young adult.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), a Trump-endorsed GOP candidate vying to replace Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), was pressed on the apparent disconnect during an interview with CBS Miami that aired on Saturday.
While it was previously known that Donalds faced an arrest over marijuana in 1997—only to have the charges dropped years later as part of a pre-trial diversion program—this marked the first time he’s publicly admitted to selling small amounts of cannabis and acknowledged that he benefitted from the type of criminal justice reform law he’s worked to undermine in the District of Columbia.
“Honestly, I was walking down the street, I was leaving a party, officers came up, asked me if I would empty my pockets. I said, ‘Yes, of course.’ I had a dime bag of marijuana in my pocket. That’s the story,” the congressman said. “It was bad decisions. I can’t undo that decision.”
Donalds said he sold “low-level
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