The criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Newark alleges McIver “slammed her forearm” into one agent and “forcibly” grabbed him.
Habba also agreed to drop the pending trespass charge against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who is also running for governor.
Under federal court rules, prosecutors will have 30 days to get a grand jury to obtain an indictment of McIver.
At the time, POLITICO witnessed McIver and Watson Coleman appearing to mediate a negotiation between an agent and Baraka inside the gated area.
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.
Representative from New Jersey. A court filing released on Tuesday reveals that LaMonica McIver faces a felony charge of assaulting a federal officer for allegedly pushing two unidentified Homeland Security agents during a fight that started earlier this month when three House members were attempting to visit an immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey.
The criminal complaint was filed in the United States. S. . According to the District Court in Newark, McIver “forcibly” grabbed one agent after “slamming her forearm” into him. The complaint, which includes numerous images from officers’ personal video cameras as well as others installed outside the building, also accuses the Democratic congresswoman of using “each of her forearms to forcibly strike” another officer.
U was shown the complaint. S. . Magistrate Judge Stacey Adams on Monday night, just prior to the interim U.S. A. When lawyer Alina Habba revealed the charge against X, the political branches became more antagonistic. In addition, Habba consented to drop the trespassing charge against Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark and a Democrat seeking the governorship.
The maximum statutory penalty for the charge against McIver is eight years in prison; however, federal guidelines usually result in sentences that are far less than the maximum.
In accordance with federal court regulations, prosecutors will have 30 days to gather a grand jury in order to indict McIver.
The court document was made public just hours before a hearing on the “threats to ICE operations” was scheduled by a House subcommittee. Rep. from New Jersey is the panel’s leader. Republicans like Jeff Van Drew. His statement that “we’re going to go into… the actual scuffle itself” was a reference to the Newark incident. “.”.
The charge comes after McIver and her colleagues, Representatives, visited on May 9. Menendez, Rob (D-N). The J. together with Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N. J. . ), to a recently opened Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, which led to a fight and Baraka’s arrest.
McIver, who has insisted on her innocence and called the accusations political, will probably be called to appear in federal court in the next few days to be formally informed of the charges by a magistrate judge.
Special agent Robert Tansey of the Department of Homeland Security provides a new, written account of the events of the day in the charging document.
Tansey shared a fresh story about how Baraka got into the detention center’s gated area. Baraka said he received an invitation. The mayor was allowed entry, according to Tansley, “because the guard thought the Mayor was a member of the Congressional delegation.”. “”.
Eventually, Baraka was told he would be arrested and asked to leave the gated area.
POLITICO saw McIver and Watson Coleman outside the gated area at the time, seemingly mediating a negotiation between Baraka and an agent. Tansey claims that McIver and the other congressmen “surrounded the Mayor and prevented [authorities] from handcuffing him and taking him into custody.”. “.”.
Eventually Baraka walked out of the gated area. The three Congressmen who remained inside the gate made their way back to the building.
The situation appeared to have been defused when Watson Coleman told Baraka, “We will be your eyes and your ears and we will report to you, mayor.”.
Menendez reappeared across the parking lot a few moments later to caution Baraka that he might still be arrested. Later, Menendez would claim to have seen an agent inside the fenced area engaged in a phone conversation with someone who instructed the agent to detain Baraka. McIver provided a comparable narrative.
A scrum broke out as authorities went to arrest Baraka. Tansey claimed that while others shouted, “circle the mayor,” McIver “hurried outside towards the agents and attempted to thwart the arrest.”. “”.
According to Tansey, McIver and other individuals encircled Baraka in a “human shield” to stop the arrest. He claimed that she tried to “thwart the arrest” by allegedly slamming her forearm into one agent, grabbing him, and then violently striking another agent with her forearms.
After seeing it all firsthand, Menendez said in a statement Monday night, “I firmly feel that the administration should be apologizing to Rep. McIver, not putting her under arrest on unheard-of, politically motivated charges. Menendez stated that McIver had been pushed in what he described as an “assault” on the day of the incident, and that “all of us were touched” by federal authorities. “.”.
McIver expressed her excitement for her day in court to reporters Tuesday morning. Prior to the charging document being made public, McIver described the Trump administration’s actions as “political intimidation” in a CNN interview on Tuesday. To a question about whether she had tried to work out a plea agreement, McIver stated that while she is “open to having conversations,” she won’t “roll over and stop doing my job.”. “.”.
“I was not going to confess to doing something that I did not do, as requested by the Justice Department and Alina Habba,” McIver stated.
A contributor to this report was Madison Fernandez.
