Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver to be charged in New Jersey ICE clash: U.S. Justice Dept.

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The Justice Department said it would charge a Democratic congresswoman whom authorities have accused of assaulting law enforcement officials during a confrontation last week outside an immigration detention center in Newark.

Rep. LaMonica McIver (New Jersey) will be charged with assaulting, resisting, and impeding law enforcement officers, said Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey. In a statement, Habba also announced her office would dismiss the trespassing charge it filed against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) over the same incident, though she did not explain the reasoning behind that decision.

The highly unusual decision – to charge a sitting member of Congress after a heated clash in which no one was injured – follows the equally unusual arrest of a local judge in Wisconsin this month on obstruction charges for allegedly helping an undocumented migrant in her courtroom evade U.S. immigration authorities.

Trump administration officials and allies had called for charges against McIver and two lawmakers who were with her during the May 9 incident. And Attorney General Pam Bondi and her top deputies have repeatedly promised to go after local, state and elected officials whom they accuse of impeding the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

The Justice Department is also considering dropping its policy that requires career prosecutors specializing in public corruption cases to approve indictments of U.S. lawmakers, The Washington Post reported this week.

“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,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democratic leaders said in a statement Monday night. “House Democrats will not be intimidated by the Trump administration. Not today. Not ever.”

Habba – a former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump who received sanctions and judicial reprimands while representing him – said she attempted to reach a resolution with McIver without pressing charges but was not successful. She did not say what sort of deal she attempted to broker.

As of 10 p.m., no charging documents were posted in federal court, and a spokesperson for McIver’s legal team said neither she nor her lawyers had seen any charging documents. McIver issued a public statement calling the decision to charge her “purely political.”

McIver went to the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark along with Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr. (D-New Jersey) as part of a congressional oversight visit, which is permitted under federal law.

Baraka was blocked from entering the facility, and later retreated to public property alongside protesters outside the facility. A scuffle then erupted between Baraka, masked law enforcement officials and the three lawmakers. Baraka was arrested at the scene and charged with trespassing. At a hearing in federal court Thursday morning, federal prosecutors vowed to take his case to trial this summer, though those charges are now dismissed.

Video released by the Department of Homeland Security showed McIver rushing after the agents as they attempted to arrest Baraka outside the facility’s gates and shouting to protesters outside to “surround the mayor.” At one point, McIver’s elbows appear to make contact with a masked officer amid the crush of the crowd.

In a statement, Habba said that the alleged wrongdoing by McIver “cannot be overlooked by the chief federal law enforcement official in the State of New Jersey …it is my Constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties.”

House Democrats questioned Habba’s account of McIver’s behaviour, noting that the lawmaker went on an hour-long tour of the center after the melee that was captured on video.

Several Republican lawmakers celebrated the charges, however, and at least one had already introduced a resolution that would boot all three lawmakers who were on the Delaney Hall tour from their committees.

“I fully support the Trump administration’s decision to charge Mrs. McIver, who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, of all places, for her actions that are clearly documented on video,” said House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-Tennessee) in a statement. “We need to send a clear message to would-be lawbreakers around this country-under this administration, no matter how privileged you are, you will be subject to the rule of law.”

McIver’s lawyer, former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul J. Fishman, called the decision to prosecute her “spectacularly inappropriate” and said she had simply been performing her duties as a member of Congress overseeing conditions at the facility when the clash erupted.

“Rather than facilitating that inspection, ICE agents chose to escalate what should have been a peaceful situation into chaos,” Fishman said in a statement. “This prosecution is an attempt to shift the blame for ICE’s behaviour to Congresswoman McIver. In the courtroom, facts – not headlines – will matter.”