One of the two Tennessee State Representatives ousted for participating in the storming of the Tennessee State House has been re-appointed to his seat.

State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) was re-appointed to his seat by a unanimous vote of the Nashville Metropolitan Council. According to CNN, the Nashville Metro Council voted to suspend a procedural rule that prevents an individual from being nominated and appointed to the seat in the same meeting.

The Council then voted unanmiously, 36-0, to appoint Jones back to the seat.

“This vote was unprecedented,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said during the meeting, according to local news outlet WTVF. “Let’s give the district their voice back. I call this body to give them their voice back now.”

Jones will serve as interim Rep. for the 52nd legislative district until a special election is held. Jones is eligible for re-election, The Tennessean reported.

Jones, along with fellow Democratic Rep. Justin J.Pearson, was expelled from the State House last week for breaking decorum rules, after breaking into the chamber during the legislative session and leading pro-gun reform protesters in chants in the chamber. Jones in particular shouted chants through a bullhorn, despite not being recognized to speak. The Republican supermajority in the State House ejected Jones by a vote of 72-25.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally declared on Sunday that Russian authorities had wrongfully detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, giving federal officials additional resources to secure his release.

Blinken announced the official classification involving Gershkovich, who was arrested last week on accusations of espionage by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The category gives control to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department to handle the situation.

“Journalism is not a crime,” Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesperson, told NBC in a statement. “We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia and its ongoing war against the truth.”

Blinken spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week, calling for the “immediate release” of Gershkovich, and Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine veteran detained in the country since 2018.

On March 29, in the first arrest of an American journalist on espionage charges since 1986, Gershokovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, located in the Ural Mountains, while on a reporting trip, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Russian Foreign Ministry claimed the United States was politicizing Gershokovich’s detention, saying, “it is unacceptable for officials in Washington and the western media to whip up a stir with the clear intention of giving this case a political colouring.”

“Blinken’s attention was drawn to the need to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities, taken in accordance with the law and international obligations of the Russian Federation,” the foreign ministry said.

Russia has yet to provide any evidence for the allegations against Gershkovich but claimed he was “caught red-handed while trying to obtain secret information, collecting data constituting a state secret under the guise of a journalistic status.”

According to The New York Times, Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison. The Wall Street Journal “vehemently denies” the allegations, as did Gershkovich in a court appearance last week.

Whelan is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in a penal colony on espionage charges, accusations which Whelan denies and the U.S. government says are baseless.

President Joe Biden recently told reporters that his message to Russia regarding Gershkovich was “let him go.”

Ben Whitehead contributed to this report.