Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, announced Monday she is charging Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) with assaulting law enforcement while at an ICE detention center in Newark earlier this month.
It marks the first time that President Trump’s Justice Department has charged a sitting lawmaker during his second term, a major escalation stemming from when McIver tried to gain access to the Delaney Hall ICE detention center along with two other congressional Democrats and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) earlier this month.
Habba’s office previously charged Baraka with a misdemeanor trespassing charge. She simultaneously announced on Monday that his charge would be dropped “for the sake of moving forward.”
But Habba said McIver’s conduct “cannot be overlooked” and accused the congresswoman of the federal crime of assaulting, resisting and impeding law enforcement.
“I have persistently made efforts to address these issues without bringing criminal charges and have given Representative McIver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined,” Habba said in a statement.
Information about the charges was not immediately available in the court’s online system.
In a statement, McIver condemned the charges and said she was performing her “lawful oversight responsibilities.”
“The charges against me are purely political they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,” she wrote.
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