Congress
New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver faces felony assault charge in conflict at ICE facility, court filing shows
New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver is facing a felony charge of assaulting a federal officer for allegedly pushing a pair of unnamed Homeland Security agents during a scuffle that broke out earlier this month as three House members were trying to visit an immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, a court filing released Tuesday shows.
The criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Newark alleges McIver “slammed her forearm” into one agent and “forcibly” grabbed him. The Democratic congressmember is also accused of using “each of her forearms to forcibly strike” another officer, according to the complaint, which includes multiple photos from video cameras worn by officers, as well as others mounted outside the facility.
The complaint was presented to U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacey Adams on Monday evening, shortly before New Jersey’s interim U.S. Attorney, Alina Habba, announced the charge on X, escalating a confrontation between the political branches. Habba also agreed to drop the pending trespass charge against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who is also running for governor.
The charge against McIver carries a maximum statutory punishment of eight years in prison, although defendants are typically sentenced in accordance with federal guidelines that usually result in sentences well below the maximum.
Under federal court rules, prosecutors will have 30 days to get a grand jury to obtain an indictment of McIver.
The court filing was released hours before a House subcommittee planned to hold a hearing examining the “threats to ICE operations.” The panel is led by fellow New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican. He referred to the incident in Newark, saying that “we’re going to go into … the actual scuffle itself.”
The charge follows a May 9 visit by McIver, along with her colleagues Reps. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), to a newly opened Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark that unfolded in a tussle and resulted in the arrest of Baraka.
McIver, who has maintained her innocence and denounced the charges as political, is likely to be summoned to appear before a magistrate judge in federal court in the coming days to be formally advised of the charges.
The charging document gives a fresh, written account of the day’s events from Department of Homeland Security special agent Robert Tansey.
Tansey gave a new account about how Baraka was able to enter a gated area at the detention facility. Baraka said he was invited in. Tansley said the mayor was able to enter “because the guard was under the impression that the Mayor was part of the Congressional delegation.”
Baraka was eventually asked to leave the gated area and told he would be arrested.
At the time, Blue Light News witnessed McIver and Watson Coleman appearing to mediate a negotiation between an agent and Baraka inside the gated area. According to Tansey, McIver and the other members of Congress “surrounded the Mayor and prevented [authorities] from handcuffing him and taking him into custody.”
Baraka eventually left the gated area. The three members of Congress who were still inside the gate headed back toward the facility.
“We will be your eyes and your ears and we will report to you, mayor,” Watson Coleman told Baraka, at a point where the situation seemed to have been defused.
Moments later, Menendez came back across the parking lot to warn Baraka that he could still be arrested. Menendez would later say that he’d witnessed an agent inside the fenced area talking on the phone with someone who told the agent to arrest Baraka. McIver gave a similar account.
Authorities approached Baraka to arrest him, setting off a scrum. Tansey said McIver “hurried outside towards the agents and attempted to thwart the arrest as others yelled ‘circle the mayor.’”
Tansey said McIver and others circled Baraka in a “human shield” to prevent the arrest. He said her attempts to “thwart the arrest” included allegedly slamming her forearm into and grabbing one agent and using her forearms to forcibly strike another.
Menendez said in a Monday night statement that, having witnessed everything firsthand, “I strongly believe that the administration should be apologizing to Rep. McIver, not arresting her on unprecedented, politicized charges.” The day of the incident, Menendez said that “all of us were touched” by federal authorities and said McIver had been shoved in what he called an “assault.”
McIver told reporters Tuesday morning that she is “looking forward to my day in court.” In a BLN interview on Tuesday, prior to the charging document becoming public, McIver called the Trump administration’s actions “political intimidation.” In response to a question about if she had attempted to negotiate a plea deal, McIver said she is “open to having conversations” but won’t “roll over and stop doing my job.”
“The Justice Department and Alina Habba wanted me to admit to doing something that I did not do, and I was not going to do that,” McIver said.
Madison Fernandez contributed to this report.
The chair of the House Agriculture Committee said he’s not willing to “accept bad results” as a tradeoff for the benefits of advancements in artificial intelligence — a direct rebuttal to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“As someone who practiced health care for 28 years, I’m never willing to accept bad results. I think we just need to do our best,” Rep. G.T. Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters Monday.
He was responding to Altman’s comments to Decoded by Blue Light News that people “should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.”
Pressed further on whether he agreed with Altman’s premise, Thompson replied, “No, I think we have to work harder to prevent any bad things from happening.”
Altman’s comments come in the wake of increased panic over the risks of catastrophic destruction from AI, with many industry leaders and experts arguing that guardrails are needed on the technology to prevent it from spinning out of human control.
Pressure is building on Congress to regulate the rapidly-advancing technology, but lawmakers are divided over whether the AI industry needs federal regulation or if it’s capable of governing itself.
The executives of major AI labs and tech companies gathered at the White House last week to discuss solutions with President Donald Trump, who believes overregulating AI will have national security repercussions. The group ended up signing a “morally binding” AI accord that critics say won’t do enough to prevent a worst-case scenario.
Thompson noted Monday he believes that AI will bring “tremendous solutions,” specifically in regards to finding cures for health issues like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. But he also said AI has to be led with “principle” — comparing it to how he addressed digital assets in a bill to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, which he worked on as chair of the Agriculture Committee.
“The first principle is ‘do no harm.’ So we need to protect consumers, and that means, I think, building some guardrails — some guidelines — to do that,” Thompson said. He added that the second principle is to “foster innovation.”
“I think AI has a lot to do with that,” he added. “I don’t think AI works without RI: Real Intelligence.”
LE SUEUR, Minnesota — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday there is no “consensus” yet on advancing a bill establishing permanent daylight saving time even as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Republicans to pass it.
Thune addressed the matter in a Monday interview after Trump used his Truth Social account multiple times over the weekend to rail against the legislation, known as the Sunshine Protection Act — going so far as to post the personal cell phone number of one of its GOP opponents, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
“The president feels strongly on it like he does a lot of issues,” he said. “It’s something we’re having conversations about but there’s no clear path forward or consensus on it yet.”
While Trump singled out Cotton for scrutiny, Thune made clear the opposition to the permanent daylight saving time proposal — which would lead to very late winter sunrises in some parts of the country — ran deeper than one senator.
Cotton has publicly voiced opposition to the proposal for year, citing, among other things, the fact that children in his state would be going to school in the dark for part of the year.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) voiced similar objections Monday to reporters in the Capitol, saying he was mindful of “safety concerns in the more northern and rural states where children get on the school bus in very early hours.”
Thune, who spoke during a campaign swing in Minnesota with GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya, has himself opposed previous daylight saving bills. He said Monday that “a lot of it depends on where you are in the country” and that “your geography probably has as much to do with your position on that as anything.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who has aligned himself closely with Trump, is among the lawmakers who have been pushing to get the bill through the Senate. He recently told POLITICO, “I’m going to make sure it gets passed this year.”
Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
Democrats have pulled back some of their ads in North Carolina’s Senate race, days after the top Senate Republican super PAC paused its future spending in the state.
WinSenate, a group affiliated with the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC, has removed roughly $1.1 million in North Carolina ad buys this week, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. The group still has roughly $18.8 million in future reservations through Election Day.
“Senate Majority PAC is committed to seeing this race through to victory, and will continue to make spending decisions based on how to best build a strong Senate majority,” Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.
The move, combined with the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund’s decision to pause future spending, are a signal that both parties are shifting resources amid an ever-expanding Senate map. Democrats are increasingly confident in their North Carolina Senate nominee, Roy Cooper, as he continues to hold a sizable lead in public polling over Republican Michael Whatley — but some privately say states like Michigan and New Hampshire need more resources.
Meanwhile, multiple Republican groups, not just SLF, have retreated from the state in recent weeks, effectively deciding that it’s no longer worth the money to boost Whatley’s campaign.
The Koch-aligned Americans for Prosperity Action left North Carolina off its $22 million list of future spending across key Senate contests, and Old North Action removed $6.5 million in ad reservations last month.
The Cooper campaign, however, is still treating the race as competitive, pointing to North Carolina’s closely divided electorate and the fact that President Donald Trump won the state in each of the past three presidential elections.
“North Carolina is a truly 50/50 state and Democrats haven’t won a US Senate race in 18 years. We can’t take anything for granted or our eye off the ball,” said Morgan Jackson, a senior adviser to the Cooper campaign. “DC is broken and we’re going to continue to run this race like we’re ten points down to ensure North Carolinians get the change they desperately need.”
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