NEWARK, N.J. — (AP) — A New Jersey federal judge on Wednesday released Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver on her own recognizance during the congresswoman's first court appearance on assault charges stemming from immigration officials' attempt to arrest Newark's mayor at a detention facility.
McIver appeared remotely from Washington as Congress is in session for the initial hearing, where she was officially notified of the two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding an officer from the May 9 skirmish outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement-run facility called Delaney Hall.
The prosecutor’s complaint says McIver attempted to stop the arrest of Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who is running in this year's primary for New Jersey governor, and pushed into and grabbed agents for Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Magistrate Judge Stacey Adams presided over the roughly 15-minute hearing, at which both McIver, her attorneys, and federal prosecutors appeared through a video call in the Newark courtroom.
McIver denied the charges and said she was carrying out her duty as a member of Congress to oversee a federal facility. The only words she spoke during the proceeding were “Yes, your honor,” responding to the judges questions, including if she had received the complaint against her. In a fundraising email sent after the hearing, McIver called the charges baseless.
“I went to an ICE facility in my district to conduct oversight because that is my job and my lawful right as a member of Congress,” she wrote.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of up to eight years in prison, prosecutors said.
Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba had charged Baraka with trespassing after his arrest but dismissed the allegation on Monday when she said in a social media post that she was instead charging the congresswoman. Baraka is a Democratic candidate for governor in next month's primary election.
Prosecuting McIver is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption.
The case instantly taps into a broader and more consequential struggle between a Trump administration engaged in overhauling immigration policy and a Democratic Party scrambling to respond.
McIver's Democratic colleagues cast the prosecution as an infringement on lawmakers’ official duties to serve their constituents and an effort to silence their opposition to an immigration policy that helped propel the president back into power but now has emerged as divisive fault line in American political discourse.
Under the law, members of Congress are authorized to go into federal immigration facilities as part of their oversight powers, even without notice. Congress passed a 2019 appropriations bill that spelled out the authority.
A nearly two-minute clip released by the Homeland Security Department shows McIver on the facility side of a chain-link fence just before the arrest of the mayor on the street side of the fence. She and uniformed officials go through the gate, and she joins others shouting that they should circle the mayor. The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point, her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police” on it.
It isn’t clear from police bodycam video whether that contact was intentional, incidental or a result of jostling in the chaotic scene.
The complaint says she “slammed” her forearm into an agent then tried to restrain the agent by grabbing him.
Wednesday's court appearance included a brief disagreement over whether McIver would be able to travel oversees for personal reasons. Adams had said an agreement before her noted she could travel only for official business, but McIver's attorney, former United States Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman, said she had a vacation planned.
“There is zero chance a congresswoman is a flight risk,” he said. The judge said she would be OK with such travel but asked prosecutors and defense to discuss and send her an agreement if they could reach one.
New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, who, along with Rep. Rob Menendez, had joined McIver at the detention center, told reporters Tuesday that her and Menendez’s attorneys are scheduled to meet Wednesday with Habba’s office.
“That’s the first contact that we’ve actually had from her, so we don’t know what she has intended, but we’re ready for whenever it might be,” she said.
Watson Coleman added that Habba’s office has indicated that charges are still on the table.
“It’s a possibility and it may be a probability," she said. “We shall see.”
A message seeking comment on Tuesday was left with Habba’s office.
McIver, 38, first came to Congress in September in a special election after the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. left a vacancy in the 10th District. She was then elected to a full term in November. A Newark native, she served as the president of the Newark City Council from 2022 to 2024 and worked in the city’s public schools before that.
A preliminary hearing, which the judge stressed would occur in person, was scheduled for June 11.
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Associated Press writers Matt Brown, Joey Cappelletti and Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed.
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