EXCLUSIVE: Hours after he was caught with a closed office, Hakeem Jeffries insists his office is open and that Republicans shut down the government

The Washington Reporter caught Rep. Hakeem Jeffries with a closed personal office. That same office now insists that it is open and that Republicans are to blame for the Schumer Shutdown.

Hours after the Washington Reporter caught Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) with his office closed during the first business hours of the Schumer Shutdown, his door is still closed — but now it has a sign that reads that “this office is open and working for the American people.”

While Democrats, led by Jeffries’s fellow New Yorker, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) are holding the government hostage during the shutdown, Jeffries is insisting that “Donald Trump and Republicans have shut down the federal government.”

The new sign on Jeffries’s office is a marked shift from what awaited his constituents who visited his personal office yesterday morning, when a pile of papers was stacked outside next to a giant recycling bin at 9:25am.

One Republican staffer who showed up to work on time during the first day of the Schumer Shutdown remarked to the Reporter that “if you shut the government down, maybe at least show up to work on time the next day.”

While Jeffries’s personal office was closed to his constituents, Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) had both his leadership and personal offices open no later than 9am on the first day of the Schumer Shutdown, as the Reporter previously reported.