{"id":9409,"date":"2025-05-20T00:33:05","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T00:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/feds-charge-new-jersey-congressmember-with-assault\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T00:33:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T00:33:05","slug":"feds-charge-new-jersey-congressmember-with-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/feds-charge-new-jersey-congressmember-with-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds charge New Jersey congressmember with assault"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Justice Department announced an assault charge Monday against Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat who was involved in a chaotic confrontation with officials outside a federal immigration facility earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The criminal charge follows a May 9 visit by McIver, along with her colleagues Reps. Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman, to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark that unfolded in a tussle<\/a> and resulted in the arrest of the city\u2019s Democratic mayor.<\/p>\n

New Jersey interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced the charge against McIver on X<\/a>, escalating a confrontation between the political branches, while also agreeing to drop the pending trespass charge against Mayor Ras Baraka.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Habba said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The charge is an extraordinary stress-test for the separation of powers at a time in which President Donald Trump is seeking to maximize executive branch dominance. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries last week warned against<\/a> federal law enforcement targeting the Democratic members and called arrests a \u201cred line.\u201d<\/p>\n

The formal charging documents were not immediately made public, but Habba cited a provision of federal law<\/a> that makes it a crime to engage in an assault on a federal officer. It\u2019s a felony when the assault involves \u201cphysical contact with the victim.\u201d McIver is being charged \u201cfor assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement,\u201d according to Habba.<\/p>\n

The three lawmakers last Friday attempted to inspect Delaney Hall \u2014 the Trump administration\u2019s newest immigrant detention facility \u2014 for oversight, as members of Congress are allowed to do by law. Charges have not been announced for Menendez nor Watson Coleman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charges against me are purely political \u2014 they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,\u201d McIver said in a statement. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Justice Department announced an assault charge Monday against Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat who was involved in a chaotic confrontation with officials outside a federal immigration facility earlier this month. The criminal charge follows a May 9 visit by McIver, along with her colleagues Reps. Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}