U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Baltimore Democrat who chaired the powerful House Oversight and Reform Committee, died Thursday at age 68, his office said in a statement.
Cummings died at Maryland’s Johns Hopkins Hospital at 2:45 a.m. from “complications concerning longstanding health challenges,” according to his office, weeks after an unspecified medical procedure kept him away from Washington. In recent years, he has undergone both heart and knee surgery.
A 23-year veteran of the House of Representatives, he has emerged as a key player in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump — who has frequently lashed out at Cummings as his committee stepped up investigations of his administration.