Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) on Wednesday morning pleaded not guilty to three charges stemming from a scuffle outside a newly reopened migrant detention center last month.
McIver, who faces two felony charges of assaulting or impeding a federal officer and a third misdemeanor charge of the same offense, spoke just once during her arraignment in Newark: “Your honor, I plead not guilty.” The congresswoman was charged after a scuffle when federal officers arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka over a now-dismissed trespassing charge at Delaney Hall, a privately operated migrant detention center.
District Court Judge Jamel Semper set an approximate schedule for the case, with a trial expected Nov. 10. The parties have until Aug. 15 to file motions, which will be heard during a Sept. 9 hearing. A pretrial status conference is scheduled for Sept. 23.
Baraka was arrested outside the gates of Delaney Hall, a 1,100-bed facility which he argues is operating illegally. When officers exited the gates to arrest the mayor, a small melee ensued in which McIver, fellow Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) and Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), and a small crowd of protesters scuffled with the officers who were leading Baraka away. Both sides said that the other had been the aggressor, and no injuries were reported.
Members of Congress have federal oversight authority that allows them to inspect facilities without prior notice. McIver and the other members of Congress have insisted that federal officers committed the assault, not McIver or any other demonstrators.
Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba, the federal prosecutor who has promised to help “turn New Jersey red,” first announced the charges against McIver last month in a social media post. In that same post, Habba announced her office would drop the trespassing charges against Baraka. A different federal judge reprimanded Habba’s office before dismissing the case, saying the charges constitute a “worrisome misstep” and “embarrassing.”
Baraka and Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark) were among the approximately 70 spectators in the courtroom.
McIver was joined by attorneys Paul Fishman and Lee Cortes. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark McCarren was the sole prosecutor at the arraignment. McIver was released on her own recognizance during a virtual hearing last month.
After the arraignment, McIver told a group of at least 200 supporters outside the courthouse that the Trump administration is targeting Democrats who criticize the federal government, and promised to keep fighting.
“I just left court and pleaded not guilty, because I am not guilty,” she said. “And we will fight this. At the end of the day, this is about political intimidation. The Trump administration and his, you know, him and his colleagues or cronies, whatever you want to call them, have weaponized the federal government.”
The city of Newark’s lawsuit against GEO Group, the private-prison company that operates Delaney Hall, is still pending.
Back in Washington, meanwhile, long-threatened efforts by Republicans to formally punish McIver for the Delaney Hall incident began coming to a head today. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) introduced a resolution last night that would censure McIver and remove her from the House Homeland Security Committee, and he entered the resolution into the record at a committee hearing this morning.
“Censure is appropriate, and historically is well in line with what has happened,” Higgins said during the Homeland Security Committee’s otherwise-unrelated meeting. “Generally, by this point, a member removes themselves from their committee involvement, certainly from a committee that has direct oversight in the arena wherein the charges are to be prosecuted.”
Democrats objected to Higgins’ resolution, with committee ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) saying McIver is innocent until proven guilty and calling it a “kangaroo rule to kick her off the committee.” The resolution, which has been assigned to the Ethics Committee, did not come up for a formal vote.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders have said they support some form of discipline against McIver, but it’s not clear what the timeline for that might be. The House Ethics Committee is also reviewing the case, as is standard when a member is charged with a crime.
A few Republicans have gone even further and suggested McIver would be expelled from Congress entirely, though that’s a drastic step that would require the approval of two-thirds of the House, an impossible threshold given Democratic support for McIver. (Even Higgins said today he would oppose an expulsion effort until McIver is convicted.)
Regardless of what’s in store, McIver is on her way back.
“I would love to stay here with you,” she told supporters outside the courthouse. “But I’m on my way back to Washington, D.C., to do the job that the people of New Jersey elected me to do.”
Joey Fox contributed reporting.
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