Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, announced Monday that two assault charges were being filed against Rep. LaMonica McIver for her participation in a clash outside Delaney Hall, a federal detention facility in Newark, on May 9.
The announcement came shortly after charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for trespassing at the facility on the same occasion were dropped.
The charges against McIver (D-10th) attracted the attention of President Donald Trump.
“The days of woke are over,” the president said Tuesday after a budget meeting on Capitol Hill with Republican leaders. “That woman. I have no idea who she is. That woman was out of control. She was shoving federal agents. She was out of control. The days of that crap are over in this country. We’re going to have law and order.”
McIver was in the middle of some pushing and shoving in the scrum that followed Baraka’s arrest on May 9. On CNN Tuesday morning, the congresswoman, who declined a deal that would have called for an admission of guilt, was defiant.
“We have come to this point in America, that this is what’s happening to leaders who are trying to do their jobs,” McIver said. “[Whether] it’s the mayor of the largest city, [whether] it’s a judge, we’ve seen this administration attack leaders for doing their jobs. It’s political intimidation and I will not be intimidated.”
Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8th), who was also present at Delaney Hall, said, “We showed up to do our job, as we have the right to do, and it was met with an immense amount of resistance and purposeful intimidation. The point that I have made to people is, if this is happening to judges, mayors and members of Congress, we should all be concerned because it could be anyone of us next.”
McIver could face up to eight years in federal prison. The government has a month to get a grand jury together to indict the congresswoman.
