By Raquel Coronell Uribe and Ryan J. Reilly
The Justice Department has filed charges against a Democratic member of Congress, alleging that she assaulted law enforcement officers during a protest outside an immigration detention facility in New Jersey earlier this month.
Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., faces two counts of assaulting, resisting, and impeding law enforcement officials in connection with an incident at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, according to court documents made public on Tuesday.
Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba, who served as Trump’s personal attorney and previously worked as counselor to the president, announced the charges against McIver on X on Monday night, before they were made public.
On Tuesday, McIver told NBC News that she had learned of the charges on social media after Habba posted about them.
It’s political intimidation, and I’m looking forward to my day in court,” she said Tuesday. McIver had called the charges “purely political” in a statement on Monday night and said she looked forward “to the truth being laid out clearly in court.”
“Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues to inspect the treatment of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in my district. We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka,” she said.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche backed Habba’s statement, writing on X that “assaults on federal law enforcement will not be tolerated.”
Habba also said her office had dropped trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a candidate for New Jersey governor who was arrested on May 9, the day McIver and two other House Democrats were at the facility.
“After extensive consideration, we have agreed to dismiss Mayor Baraka’s misdemeanor charge of trespass for the sake of moving forward,” Habba said.
The charges against McIver were brought by Justice Department attorney Stephen Demanovich, who began serving this month as counselor to Habba. Court records show that Demanovich has only been involved in two cases in federal court in New Jersey: The case against McIver and the now-dropped misdemeanor case against Baraka. No other prosecutors appear on record in the McIver case.
Demanovich had previously worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida and, until this month, in private practice. Last month, Demanovich moderated a Federalist Society panel titled “The Weaponization of DOJ?” featuring Trump attorney John Lauro and a former Jan. 6 prosecutor.
An affidavit by Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Robert Tansey said that McIver made physical contact with another Homeland Security Investigations special agent as well as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officer when they protested Baraka’s removal.
When the HSI agent said he was going to arrest Baraka, McIver yelled “Hell no! Hell no! Hell no!,” according to the affidavit and “surrounded the Mayor and prevented HSI from handcuffing him and taking him into custody.” The government alleged that McIver “slammed her forearm into the body” of the HIS special agent and “pushed an ICE officer” and used “each of her forearms to forcibly strike” that officer.
Baraka said in a statement that he was glad that charges against him were dismissed. He also said he expected McIver to be vindicated.
“Congresswoman McIver is a daughter of Newark, past Newark Council President, a former student of mine, and a dear friend. I want to be clear: I stand with LaMonica, and I fully expect her to be vindicated,” Baraka said.
Baraka was arrested during a chaotic scene that involved a protest outside the ICE detention center in Newark known as Delaney Hall. McIver was one of three Democratic members of the New Jersey congressional delegation present who have repeatedly said they were on site to inspect the facility in their capacity as lawmakers conducting federal oversight.
Rep. Rob Menendez accused ICE agents at a news conference after Baraka’s arrest of putting “their hands” on McIver and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman.
“We were assaulted by multiple ICE agents,” McIver told reporters at the time.
Trump administration officials have accused the lawmakers of “storming into” the facility.
“Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said May 9.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem argued Monday night in a statement on X that “a thorough review of the video footage of Delaney Hall and a full investigation” by her department supported the charge against McIver.
McIver’s lawyer, Paul Fishman, called the decision to charge her “spectacularly inappropriate.”
“She went to Delaney Hall to do her job. As a member of Congress, she has the right and responsibility to see how ICE is treating detainees. Rather than facilitating that inspection, ICE agents chose to escalate what should have been a peaceful situation into chaos. This prosecution is an attempt to shift the blame for ICE’s behavior to Congresswoman McIver,” Fishman said in a statement.
Federal prosecutors frequently used the assault charge in cases against rioters who assaulted law enforcement at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. President Donald Trump this year pardoned about 1,500 defendants from the attack on the Capitol, including some convicted of assaulting police.
The Justice Department under Trump has gone after many of his detractors. Last month, it initiated a probe of Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor, two former Trump officials who disputed his 2020 election fraud claims. More recently, the department opened a criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has overseen several cases against Trump.
House Democratic leaders condemned the charges against McIver in a joint statement Monday night, calling them“morally bankrupt” and saying they lacked “any basis in law or in fact.”
“By visiting the detention center in Newark, Rep. McIver and two other Members of Congress were upholding their oath of office. They didn’t assault anyone, but were themselves aggressively mistreated by illegally masked individuals,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, Pete Aguilar and Ted Lieu of California and Joe Neguse of Colorado.
“The proceeding initiated by the so-called U.S. Attorney in New Jersey is a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate Congress and interfere with our ability to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch,” they said, adding that House Democrats will “respond vigorously in the days to come at a time, place and manner of our choosing.”