By Sarah N. Lynch and Steve Gorman
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. attorney for New Jersey said on Monday she was charging a member of Congress from the state with assault and impeding law enforcement during a scuffle caught on video earlier this month at a privately run immigration detention center in Newark.
The lawmaker, U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver, a Democrat from Newark, denied wrongdoing and said she was the victim of a politically motivated prosecution at the hands of U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump.
Habba, who was previously sanctioned by a federal judge for filing a frivolous lawsuit, announced the case against McIver in a statement in which she said she was also dismissing a trespassing charge previously brought against Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka.
Both cases stem from an incident on May 9 at the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, the largest city in New Jersey, while McIver and two other Democratic members from New Jersey’s congressional delegation were there for an unannounced inspection.
Habba’s investigation of McIver was undertaken at a time when the U.S. Department of Justice has suspended internal procedures that have long required special review and consultation before opening a criminal probe of any incumbent member of Congress, according to people familiar with the matter.
Baraka, who had come to the immigration jail separately at the same time as the three U.S. lawmakers, ended up being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the gate of the ICE facility before being taken to a nearby ICE field office.
Baraka, a Democrat running for New Jersey governor, insisted the trespassing charge against him was baseless, saying he was welcomed onto the grounds of the detention center and departed peacefully when asked to leave. He said he was targeted for arrest for political reasons and taken into custody after he was outside the property and beyond the gate.
"After extensive consideration, we have agreed to dismiss Mayor Baraka’s misdemeanor charge of trespass for the sake of moving forward," Habba said in a statement on Monday.
However, she said McIver would face charges of assault, impeding and interfering with law enforcement for her actions that day.
"That conduct cannot be overlooked," Habba wrote. It was not immediately clear whether Habba intended to file the charge as a misdemeanor or felony. Baraka’s case had been filed as a misdemeanor.
In a separate statement, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cited video footage showing that McIver was involved in a fracas with ICE agents at the time of Baraka’s arrest.
’PURELY POLITICAL’
Like Baraka, McIver said the charges against her were "purely political," and that they were "meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight."
McIver said that on the day of the incident she and two fellow lawmakers, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr, went to the facility to conduct a surprise inspection, exercising their oversight authority as members of Congress to ensure that detainees were being treated properly.
The three lawmakers, McIver said, were caught in the scuffle surrounding Baraka’s arrest when they noticed a crowd converging around the mayor near the gate and approached the scene. McIver, who was wearing a bright red jacket at the time, could be seen in video footage being jostled in the midst of pushing and shoving by ICE agents and other individuals.
Baraka and immigrant rights advocates have alleged that Delaney Hall, a 1,000-person detention center operated by private prison company GEO Group, lacked proper city permits and opened despite opposition from community and elected officials.
DHS has denied the facility lacked proper permits.
The circumstances surrounding McIver’s arrest could raise new questions about the Department of Justice procedures in bringing elected officials under the scrutiny of federal prosecutors.
DOJ rules require all U.S. attorneys’ offices to consult the department’s Public Integrity Section before launching investigations into sitting members of Congress and to seek prior approval from the section before filing criminal charges against a member of Congress.
The Public Integrity Section is tasked with prosecuting and consulting on some of the country’s most politically sensitive cases, from public corruption to election crimes.
Earlier this month, it was ordered to stand down on consulting with other prosecutors on any cases while senior department leaders review and consider revisions to those rules, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Although the rules requiring the section’s approval for charges against members of Congress are still technically on the books, the Public Integrity Section was not consulted prior to the filing of charges against McIver, one of those sources told Reuters.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
While in private practice, Habba has represented Trump in a variety of civil litigation cases, including a trial in which a jury found Trump liable for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of raping her in the mid-1990s in a department store dressing room.
In 2023, a federal judge in Florida sanctioned Trump and Habba and ordered them to pay $1 million for filing a frivolous lawsuit alleging that Hillary Clinton and others conspired to damage Trump’s reputation in the investigation into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump and Habba are appealing that ruling.