A former systems administrator for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee was arrested and federally indicted on Friday for stealing more than 200 phones and selling them to a nearby pawn shop.
Christopher Southerland, 43, of Maryland, is accused of using his committee position to ship 240 new government cellphones to his home and then selling them to a pawn shop, per the indictment. Southerland worked as an employee of the committee from April 2020 to July 2023, and he allegedly orchestrated the scheme from January 2023 to May 2023.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the indictment on Monday. Per the charges, Southerland allegedly told an employee to sell the phones “in parts” to bypass the House’s mobile device software, which allows the chamber to secure and monitor its phones.
The scheme was revealed when one of the phones was sold whole on eBay to an uninvolved purchaser. That purchaser turned on the phone to discover it was a phone number for the House of Representatives Technology Service Desk. After calling the number, House employees soon discovered that several phones purchased by Southerland, which were authorized under his position as a system administrator, were unaccounted for.
The case is being investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI, with prosecution occurring in the District of Columbia by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake Green.
Incidents involving congressional staffers have occurred sparingly over the last couple of years. In 2024, Michael Hopkins, communications director to Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), was arrested by Capitol Police officers for entering the Cannon House Office Building with ammunition.
SENATE APPROVES PLAQUE TO HONOR JAN. 6 LAW ENFORCEMENT
In November 2025, a staffer for Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) was fired for posing as an immigration lawyer to secure the release of an illegal immigrant from custody. Edward York, a constituent outreach coordinator in the senator’s office, was terminated from employment on Nov. 17, 2025, for telling federal agents he was the attorney of Jose Ismeal Ayuzo Sandoval, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant who had been deported to Mexico four times.
A former staffer for Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) was charged with faking a political attack that included someone slicing the words “Trump whore” into her stomach. At the time, she told police she was attacked because she worked for Van Drew, but she was later charged with conspiracy to falsely report a violent attack and giving false statements to law enforcement in November last year.
