Rep. Jamie Raskin, Member Of Jan. 6 Committee, Diagnosed With Cancer

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin has been diagnosed with cancer, the congressman revealed in a statement Wednesday.

Raskin, who lives in Bethesda and represents Maryland's 8th Congressional District, said he has Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma after several days of tests, calling it "a serious but curable form of cancer."

"I am about to embark on a course of chemo-immunotherapy on an outpatient basis at Med Star Georgetown University Hospital and Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prognosis for most people in my situation is excellent after four months of treatment," Raskin said in the statement.

Raskin said he expects to work through treatment, but said doctors had advised him to reduce unnecessary exposure to COVID-19, the flu and other viruses.

"In addition to destroying cancer cells, chemotherapy impairs natural antibodies and undermines the body’s immune system. I am advised that it also causes hair loss and weight gain (although I am still holding out hope for the kind that causes hair gain and weight loss)," Raskin said.

Raskin has played a leading role in recent years as House Democrats twice impeached then-President Donald Trump and investigated Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. He was the lead impeachment manager when the House impeached Trump one week after the attack, and he currently sits on the House committee investigating the siege. That panel issued its final report last week and is set to dissolve when the new Republican-led House is sworn in on Jan. 3.

This is the second time Raskin has been diagnosed with cancer, as he previously battled colorectal cancer in 2010.

The news comes almost exactly two years after his 25-year-old son, Tommy, committed suicide on Dec. 31, 2020.

Tommy’s death came just a week before the insurrection, and Raskin had brought his daughter and son-in-law to the Capitol that day. Through tears, Raskin spoke about their ordeal as he argued for Trump’s conviction in the Senate impeachment trial. The two hid under a desk as the violence unfolded, and his daughter later told him she didn’t want to return to the Capitol.

“Of all the terrible, brutal things I saw and I heard on that day and since then, that one hit me the hardest,” Raskin told the Senate jurors, who later acquitted Trump for a second time.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich called Raskin a "fighter."

"We have seen Jamie fight for our County, fight for our state, and even fight for the soul of our nation," Elrich said. "And now as he prepares to fight cancer once again, we send him and his family the love, the support and the hope that they have always given to us."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.