Congresswoman mugged: Robbed in DC but not seriously injured

Congresswoman Grace Meng, a freshman Democrat representing the New York City borough of Queens, was hit in the head and robbed in Washington but was not seriously injured and is back to work.

Meng said Wednesday that she suffered a bruise on her chin and scratches on her arm and knee in the attack Tuesday night near Eastern Market in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. She underwent a CAT scan at George Washington University Hospital.

Meng said she had dinner with a friend at a restaurant and was walking to her apartment when she was hit in the back of the head. She fell and hit her chin. The robber took her purse and fled on foot, she said.

"They came from behind. I didn't see anyone," she said.

Meng said she didn't know if she was mugged by more than one person. She said police had recovered an old phone that was discarded from her purse and pulled fingerprints from it. She said she's never been mugged before.

"I have not — you know, I'm from New York City and I have not been mugged like that," she said.

U.S. Capitol Police are investigating the attack, and no arrests had been made as of early Wednesday evening.

Meng, 38, is the first Asian-American member of Congress from New York and represents neighborhoods with a high concentration of Chinese-Americans. She served in the New York State Assembly before she was elected last fall in the midst of a bribery case against her father, Jimmy Meng, who also served in the state assembly. Jimmy Meng pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced this year to one month in prison.

Her Republican opponent, City Councilman Daniel Halloran, was charged this year with taking thousands of dollars in payoffs in a scheme to put a Democratic state senator on the Republican ticket for mayor.

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