Former Donald Trump personal lawyer and current Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba announced on Monday that her office was charging Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) with “assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement.”
The charges stem from a confrontation between McIver and federal agents earlier this month at Delaney Hall, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in New Jersey, where the congresswoman and two other NJ congressmembers arrived ostensibly to inspect the facility. (Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested at the scene, though charges against Baraka have been dropped.)
Habba’s charging McIver is drawing fire from top Democrats for being a political act of intimidation by the Trump administration. Calling it a “really big deal,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said: “I watched the tape. This is a political arrest – pure and simple. An attempt to punish Members of Congress for doing oversight of Trump’s illegality.”
This is a really big deal.
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) May 20, 2025
I watched the tape. This is a political arrest – pure and simple. An attempt to punish Members of Congress for doing oversight of Trump’s illegality. https://t.co/nREZBlMnLS
[NOTE: The act of viewing the tape or video, as Murphy says he has, is also an act of interpretation, with perhaps the most famous recent example being the highly divergent interpretations of the events of January 6, 2021 — even by those watching the same video.]
Immediately after the ICE-McIver confrontation, MAGA adherents excoriated the congresswoman, claiming that ICE body cameras showed her “clearly shoving DHS agents.”
BREAKING 🚨 DHS just released the ICE bodycam video of Democrat Rep LaMonica clearly shoving DHS Agents along with screaming in their faces 🎯
— Charlie Kirk 🇺🇸 Commentary (@CharlieK_news) May 10, 2025
Democrats do NOT want you to see this footage
NOBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW pic.twitter.com/H5ksbby02n
The House Judiciary GOP account on X shared video from a different vantage point.
Democrats don’t want you to see them attacking law enforcement.
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) May 20, 2025
Please don’t share this video. pic.twitter.com/OHw5DbiyHt
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