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Federal prosecutors have criminally charged a Democratic member of Congress who was caught up in a scrum with masked federal agents and protesters outside an immigration detention center in New Jersey.
Alina Habba, Donald Trump’s personal attorney who was appointed to interim U.S. Attorney of New Jersey, announced on Monday that her office filed charges against Democratic Rep. LaMonica Iver for “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees.”
On May 9, McIver joined two other House Democrats from New Jersey and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to tour the recently opened facility, which has drawn frequent protests as Democratic officials demand answers from the administration about the conditions inside.
Baraka was turned away from the visit and asked to leave, then arrested by federal agents and charged with trespassing. Chaotic video from the scene and officers’ bodycam footage shows officers shoving and holding back protesters at a gate to the facility. Agents appeared to swarm around Baraka and block protesters from the fence as they tried to stop his arrest.
But Habba announced on Monday that her office is dismissing the case “for the sake of moving forward.”
Criminal charges against a sitting member of Congress escalate threats from the Trump administration under an emboldened Justice Department to target his political enemies.
In a statement on Monday, McIver said the lawmakers “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. “The charges against me are purely political — they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight. This administration will never stop me from working for the people in our district and standing up for what is right. I am thankful for the outpouring of support I have received and I look forward to the truth being laid out clearly in court."
The Independent has requested comment from LaMonica’s office. The Department of Justice deferred comment to Habba’s office, which did not respond to The Independent’s request.
“What we just witnessed was disgusting,” McIver said outside the facility following Baraka’s arrest. “If they can treat three members of Congress like that, just imagine how they can treat people on the street each and every day.”
Administration officials claimed McIver and others, including 8-year-old Rep. Bonnie Watson Colemna, had “body slammed, body rammed, pushed, shoved, whatever you want to call it, it was assault.”
“We’ve reviewed the body cam footage shared by DHS which confirms what we’ve said from the beginning: ICE agents put their hands on Members of Congress and arrested the Mayor of Newark on public property,” a spokesperson for Watson Coleman said May 10. “Nobody was ‘body slammed,’ nobody ‘assaulted’ any agents, and this footage confirms that.”
This is a developing story
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