A federal judge on Thursday declined to toss federal assault charges against New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver.

The first-term Democrat was charged with assaulting law enforcement officers following a chaotic scrum outside an immigration detention facility in May.

McIver argued that the prosecution — led by Alina Habba, a former personal attorney to President Donald Trump whom he picked to be the state’s top federal prosecutor — was unfair and that she was shielded from the charges by the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which grants members of Congress a form of immunity that is mostly impenetrable in investigations relating to the official duties of lawmakers.

U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, disagreed and refused to toss two of the three counts, while reserving judgment on a third until he sees more evidence.

“Defendant’s active participation in the alleged conduct removes her acts from the safe harbor of mere oversight,” he said. “Lawfully or unlawfully, Defendant actively engaged in conduct unrelated to her oversight responsibilities and congressional duties.”

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.

The alleged assaults occurred during a 68-second span in the midst of a three-hour oversight visit to the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey, when McIver and fellow Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez were part of a chaotic scene as immigration agents moved to arrest city Mayor Ras Baraka on a trespassing charge that was later dropped.

Semper seemed to draw a line between alleged contact inside a gated area at Delaney Hall, which the congressional Democrats were allowed to inspect, and actions outside, which is where agents moved to arrest Baraka and where prosecutors allege that McIver committed two crimes: assaulting an agent and impeding that arrest.

The count Semper did not fully rule on involves alleged contact between McIver and an agent inside the gated area after the scrum outside the gate.

The ruling — which is likely to be appealed — is a victory for Habba’s office. While she calls herself the “acting U.S. Attorney,” another judge in August ruled she was unlawfully serving in that role. An appeals court is now considering that ruling.

Semper also rejected a more long-shot attempt by McIver’s attorneys to dismiss the whole case based on selective prosecution. McIver’s team argued for that based on Trump pardoning hundreds of people who attacked police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and the Justice Department dropping numerous additional assault cases at Trump’s direction, despite video evidence of the attacks.

“Irrespective of the pardon, the January 6 defendants are not similarly situated to Defendant because the facts and circumstances surrounding their criminal cases are unambiguously distinct,” Semper wrote.

While McIver quoted Trump and Habba’s rhetoric to claim vindictive prosecution — including Habba’s wish to “turn New Jersey red” — Semper ruled that McIver failed to demonstrate the case against her is “the result of personal animus harbored by the prosecution.”

Spokespeople for McIver and Habba did not immediately comment on the ruling.

Speaker Mike Johnson said he told Senate Majority Leader John Thune he strongly disagreed with the Senate GOP’s inclusion of a provision in the government funding package allowing senators to sue if their electronic records are obtained without their knowledge.

“I don’t think that was the smart thing to do,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday night.

Of Thune, Johnson added, “I think he regretted the way it was done, and we had an honest conversation about that.”

The House voted late Wednesday on legislation to end the longest government shutdown in history that included a continuing resolution to fund federal operations through Jan. 30 and a “minibus” of three full-year appropriation bills for Department of Agriculture and the FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects and the legislative branch.

Thune personally negotiated the inclusion of language in the legislative branch funding measure that would allow senators to receive a $500,000 payment if federal law enforcement obtains their electronic data and doesn’t notify them.

It was a direct response to recent revelations that eight Republican Senators had their phone records subpoenaed during former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

But even though Republicans on both sides of the Capitol are irate over Smith’s actions and want to haul Smith before lawmakers to testify, House Republicans were caught off guard by the provision and are now seeking to have it reversed.

Johnson announced Wednesday afternoon the House would vote on legislation next week to overturn it; it’s expected to pass with wide bipartisan support.

Separately, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan will hold a vote in his panel on a bill that would create stricter rules for the courts to approve non-disclosure orders often sought by federal law enforcement officials when conducting investigations. It passed the House in the previous Congress.

Jordan told reporters Wednesday there was no justification for Smith to seek a non-disclosure order when obtaining the senators’ phone data around the date of the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol.

Still, he did not appear to have an issue with clawing back the related provision in the government funding bill.

“Frankly, I would just say that we should pass laws for Americans, not for any special category,” he said.

The House passed a government funding package late Wednesday that will close out the longest shutdown in history.

Members returned to Washington after a 54-day recess to vote on the shutdown-ending bill brokered across party lines in the Senate. They voted 222-209, with just six Democrats breaking with their leadership to get the measure over the finish line despite not winning key concessions on health care. Two Republicans broke with their party to oppose it.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign the measure into law before the end of the night, setting up the federal operations to resume Thursday morning.

The package includes a three-bill “minibus” of full-year funding for the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects and the operations of Congress. The trio of bills is the result of months of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations between top appropriators.

Under the measure, all other agencies are funded through Jan. 30.