Way back in March, a top aide to freshman Virginian Senator Jim Webb was arrested for trying to bring a gun into the Senate office building that happens to be the location of Webb’s office.
Today, finally, Senator Webb admitted that the weapon in question was his:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Sen. Jim Webb finally admitted he owns a gun that an aide was arrested for carrying into the U.S. Capitol complex in March.
Webb previously had refused to say whether the gun was his, although his senior aide — Phillip Thompson — had told police the weapon belonged to the Democratic senator.
“It’s my gun,” Webb told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in a recent interview. But how and why it was in Thompson’s possession remains unclear. Webb said he didn’t give the gun to Thompson, “nor did I ask him to do anything with it.”
Thompson was arrested on an illegal handgun charge when he carried the loaded pistol and two loaded magazines in a briefcase into the Russell Senate office building. A federal prosecutor later dropped the charge.
Webb said little about the incident in March, saying he did not want to prejudice the outcome of Thompson’s case.
“It was a matter under legal consideration, and I was precluded from saying anything,” Webb told the Richmond newspaper.
Webb declined to say whether he complies with the District of Columbia’s law that prohibits carrying a handgun or concealed weapon without a license.
Nor did he say whether he complies with the ethical rule that you shouldn’t let someone under you be prosecuted for a crime he committed with your knowledge.
