WASHINGTON, Nov 21: Florida congressman Henry “Trey” Radel plans to take a leave of absence and donate his salary to charity, he said last night after earlier pleading guilty in DC Superior Court to a misdemeanor charge of possession of cocaine.
Radel, 37, a Republican who was elected to the US House of Representatives last year with the backing of the conservative Tea Party movement, was sentenced to one year of probation on a charge of buying 3.5 grams of cocaine in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood on Oct. 29 in the presence of an undercover agent.
“I have no excuse for what I have done,” he told reporters late Wednesday at his office in Cape Coral, near Fort Myers on Florida’s west coast. “I’m owning up to my actions,” he added, saying he hoped to be “a better man for southwest Florida” as he struggles to overcome “this disease.”
In an earlier statement, Radel said his “struggles with alcoholism” had led him to make an “extremely irresponsible choice.”
“I am so sorry to be here. I know I have let my constituents down, my country down and, most importantly, my family, including my wife and my 2-year-old, who doesn’t know it yet,” Radel told Judge Robert Tignor on Wednesday morning.
Radel said that he would enter an “intensive” in-patient drug treatment program in Florida during his leave of absence.
He did not say how long he planned to be absent, nor which charity would receive his salary.
Radel appeared to have no plans to resign from the House of Representatives, saying his staff will handle his affairs in his absence.
The case against Radel stemmed from an investigation by Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration agents into cocaine trafficking in the Washington area, Assistant US Attorney Nihar Mohanty said. (AGENCIES)
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