Latest news with #politicalcharges
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
McIver heads to court as watchdog group files complaint against Alina Habba
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) is expected to appear in federal court for the first time Wednesday morning on a trio of charges following a May scuffle outside a federal immigration facility. At her arraignment in Newark, McIver will plead not guilty, spokesperson Hanna Rumsey said. McIver is accused in a three-count indictment of slamming a federal agent with her forearm, 'forcibly' grabbing him and using her forearms to strike another agent. Allegations of physical violence by a sitting member of Congress are rare, with a handful of incidents including the pre-Civil War caning of a senator by a member of the House. McIver's allies, including two other Democrats who were with her during the incident, have decried the charges as political and have said she was roughed up by federal agents. Her allies are also trying to turn the tables on the federal prosecutor bringing the case, the interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba. The Campaign for Accountability, a liberal watchdog group, filed a complaint this week against Habba with the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics. The complaint alleges Habba has acted improperly since becoming a prosecutor and cites her actions in the McIver case, along with comments about turning 'New Jersey red' and announcing investigations into its Democratic governor and attorney general over immigration. A spokesperson for Habba did not respond to a request for comment. 'In an atmosphere where other oversight bodies are caving to political influence, the bar's duty to independently enforce these rules is ever more important,' the group's executive director, Michelle Kuppersmith, said. Habba, who represented Donald Trump in court between his presidencies, is already facing a lawsuit brought against her by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested for trespassing at the detention facility before the charges were dropped and a judge questioned Habba's judgment. When she first announced charges against McIver, Habba said she had 'made efforts to address these issues without bringing criminal charges and have given Rep. McIver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined.' The watchdog group's complaint alleges it was improper to say the charges were contingent on McIver taking actions ordered and approved by Habba. Campaign for Accountability filed a similar complaint in New York against another federal prosecutor, Emil Bove, after he moved to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The New York attorney grievance committee declined to act and instead transferred the complaint to the Department of Justice. The charges against McIver are an extraordinary stress-test for the separation of powers at a time in which Trump is seeking to maximize executive branch dominance. In recent weeks, New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander was handcuffed and arrested by federal agents while escorting migrants from immigration hearings and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was forcibly removed from a Department of Homeland Security press conference. Neither Lender nor Padilla have been charged with anything. The two Democrats who were with McIver outside the immigration facility — Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez — have also not been charged. The three New Jersey Democrats have said they were at the immigration detention facility exercising their oversight duties and were roughed up by federal agents. Since their oversight visit, several detainees escaped and there were reports of poor conditions inside the facility, which the private company that runs the facility has denied. McIver appeared virtually at a previous hearing in May, after charges were filed but before a grand jury returned an indictment. She was allowed to appear remotely from Washington because Congress was in session. Since then, the indictment has put her case in front of U.S. District Court Judge Jamel Semper.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
"Not with a bang, but a whimper": Experts say charging NJ Democrat will backfire on Trump DOJ
The announcement of charges against a Democratic lawmaker earlier this month marks a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration's clashes with other branches of government that legal experts say may not hold up in court. Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., stands accused of two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, who previously served as President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, announced the charges last Monday after what she described as an unsuccessful attempt to reach an arrangement with the lawmaker. The Democrat attended her first court hearing virtually last Wednesday. She insisted in a statement that the charges against her are 'purely political' and 'meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight.' 'We've seen this administration come after and attack leaders for doing their jobs,' she told CNN Tuesday, referencing recent arrests of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and a Wisconsin judge. 'It's political intimidation, and I will not be intimidated.' McIver's prosecution marks a rare occasion where a lawmaker faces charges for something other than a white-collar crime like fraud or bribery. It also further stresses the government's separation of powers as Trump and his administration crack down on immigration. 'I think it's overreach,' former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Salon, arguing that the early May scrum between lawmakers and DHS officials was 'relatively minor.' Neither McIver's office nor the Justice Department responded to requests for comment. On May 9, McIver, along with fellow New Jersey Democratic Reps. Rob Menendez, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Baraka, visited the Delaney Hall detention center to inspect the new facility for oversight, which federal law allows members of Congress to conduct. The visit devolved into an altercation when they moved to arrest the Newark mayor, prompting McIver and Watson Coleman to attempt to shield him. The following day, Fox News posted a video provided by the Department of Homeland Security said to show McIver 'shoving/elbowing her way past a DHS agent.' A video taken by NJ Spotlight News shows a federal officer shoving McIver around the same time as she attempted to reenter the facility, which aligns with McIver and Menendez's account of the tussle. A group of 10 former Republican members of Congress, led by former Reps. Mickey Edwards, Okla., and Claudine Schneider, R.I., said they 'unequivocally reject' the charges against McIver in a statement Thursday. 'Rep. Mclver was present at the ICE facility as part of her official congressional duties,' the retired lawmakers said. 'We believe this extreme response to the events of that day is unwarranted.' In the criminal complaint against McIver, the government accuses her of objecting to Baraka's arrest by yelling 'Hell no!' and joining her colleagues in encircling the mayor in a ''human shield' effort to prevent [Homeland Security Investigations] from completing the arrest.' The complaint also alleges that McIver slammed her forearm into a uniformed HSI agent, attempted to restrain him and pushed an ICE officer. Rahmani, now the president of personal injury firm West Coast Trial Lawyers, said that while he doesn't believe the Justice Department should have filed the charges against McIver, the alleged offense does 'fit within the four corners of the law.' 'It is a felony if there's any physical contact,' he said in a phone interview. 'It's just not something that you typically see and, historically, there would be an exercise of prosecutorial discretion, not making a federal case out of something relatively minor.' McIver also has a 'pretty strong defense' in that she was conducting a legitimate oversight duty at the time of the altercation, Rahmani added. Federal law authorizes legislators conducting congressional oversight to access 'any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.' The Constitution's 'speech and debate clause' also protects members of Congress from criminal prosecution for actions taken as part of their official duties. Rahmani said that she may be able to argue that the prosecution is selective or political, a point that Trump himself and Hunter Biden raised during their respective cases, but would need to show that the prosecution is 'for a constitutionally prohibited reason.' In the end, Rahmani said he doesn't expect the case to actually head to trial before a jury, with the charges against McIver dropped either by the Justice Department itself or the presiding judge. But Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and former federal prosecutor, told Salon that the best way to look at McIver's prosecution is through the lens of the last four months of Trump's presidency. Traditionally, the courts viewed the government with the presumption of regularity, the idea that the government acts in good faith and conformity with the law. In a moment when the administration is denying people due process and attempting to advance a theory that birthright citizenship does not apply to children with undocumented parents, the Justice Department is 'losing that presumption of regularity,' she said. 'I think the Justice Department has earned the opposite of the benefit of the doubt,' she said in a phone interview. 'It is cast with doubt, and that is because we have heard people like the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, and the president himself talk about how they're going to seek retribution and going to go after their rivals and their enemies.' While McQuade said she believes the prosecution has 'at least some appearance' of political motivation, she also sees McIver's alleged encircling of the mayor and objection to his arrest as arising to probable cause that she violated the 'impede portion' of the statute. Still, assessing the facts of what happened during the scrum is difficult because the available photos and videos depict the tussle after it began, she said. On the other side, however, is the idea of 'respect for other branches of government,' which the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ considers alongside uniformity and historical practice when deciding whether to file charges against public officials, McQuade said. The Justice Department is currently considering removing that check. In all, she said her first reaction to the charges is skepticism. Whether the prosecution is 'lawless' is a question she doesn't have a strong answer for. But the case is still 'something to keep an eye on because it could very well be that this case ends … not with a bang, but a whimper,' McQuade added. Habba, for example, announced at the same time that the charges against Mayor Baraka had been dropped. 'We will know whether they have the goods if they can show them at a jury trial.'
Fox News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Dem lawmaker fundraises off federal assault charges after ICE facility confrontation: 'Doing my job'
Print Close By Cameron Arcand, Alexis McAdams Published May 20, 2025 FIRST ON FOX: New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver is fundraising off her federal charges for allegedly "assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement" earlier this month at the gates of Delaney Hall, which is a privately-operated Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark. "As you know, Trump is using his Department of Justice to target political opponents. Less than two weeks ago, I was doing my job and conducting oversight at an ICE facility in my city," the fundraising text obtained by Fox News Digital stated. "Now, the Trump admin has filed charges against me. This is a first-and it's a flashing red light for our democracy," it continues. "I'm sounding the alarm and asking you to donate now so we can fight these charges and keep speaking truth to power." FEDERAL CHARGES FILED AGAINST DEM CONGRESSWOMAN FOLLOWING CONFRONTATION AT ICE FACILITY Investigators say McIver assaulted two federal agents at the Delaney Hall, according to the charging documents. Prosecutors say one victim was an HSI agent, and the other was an ICE agent." Law enforcement says McIver assaulted the agents when she "slammed her forearm into the body of a uniformed HSI agent. & reached out and tried to restrain the agent by forcibly grabbing him." Then, after Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested, McIver allegedly "pushed an ICE officer & used her forearms to forcibly strike the agent." BLUE STATE POLITICAL BATTLE INTENSIFIES AFTER DEM MAYOR'S ARREST AT ICE FACILITY: 'OUTRAGED' According to the documents, McIver created a "human shield" and blocked agents from handcuffing Baraka after he ignored numerous warnings to leave the property and told him he would be arrested. When the HSI agent told the mayor he was going to arrest him, McIver interjected, yelling, "Hell no! Hell no! Hell no!" CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE The HSI agent then ordered the mayor to put his hands behind his back and displayed his handcuffs. So, McIver and other members of Congress "surrounded the Mayor and prevented HSI from handcuffing him and taking him into custody," according to prosecutors. DEM LAWMAKERS DEFEND 'STORMING' OF ICE FACILITY, SAY TRUMP ADMIN IS 'LYING AT ALL LEVELS' In a statement after the charges were announced, McIver said that she is "thankful for the outpouring of support" she's gotten and that the "truth" will be "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 stated. "The charges against me are purely political—they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight," McIver added. DHS SAYS 'ARRESTS ARE STILL ON THE TABLE' AFTER NEW JERSEY HOUSE DEMS CAUGHT ON CAMERA 'STORMING' ICE FACILITY Baraka had a federal trespassing charge against him that was dropped by acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba, but the mayor said he stands in solidarity with McIver. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "Representative LaMonica McIver assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 111 (a)(1)," Habba said in a letter shared on X Monday. "That conduct cannot be overlooked by the chief federal law enforcement official in the State of New Jersey, and it is my Constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties." Fox News Digital reached out to the McIver campaign for comments about the texts and both the campaign and her official office about the charging documents. The Democrat represents a deep blue district that includes Newark. Print Close URL
