Rep. LaMonica McIver’s (D-NJ) charges for allegedly assaulting law enforcement outside a federal immigration facility earlier this year will go forward, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, denied McIver’s motion to dismiss the case on claims of vindictive prosecution and denied her bid to dismiss two of the three charges on claims of immunity under the speech or debate clause. Semper said he would reserve ruling on the remaining count until he sees more evidence as the case develops in federal court.
McIver had argued that the Constitution‘s speech or debate clause, which grants immunity to members of Congress conducting official actions as part of their legislative duties, protected her from the charges because she was conducting oversight of the immigration facility. Semper largely rejected the claim that her alleged conduct was part of her official duties.
“The alleged criminal conduct did not occur during Defendant’s inspection of Delany Hall, instead it occurred during an inexplicable delay of Defendant’s oversight inspection,” Semper said. “Although Defendant bears no fault in the delay, her alleged intervention into the Mayor’s questionable arrest had no cognizable connection to any legislative function protected by the Speech or Debate Clause.”
“Defendant’s active participation in the alleged conduct removes her acts from the safe harbor of mere oversight. Lawfully or unlawfully, Defendant actively engaged in conduct unrelated to her oversight responsibilities and congressional duties,” he added.
The Justice Department charged McIver, who was first elected to Congress in 2024, with three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding, and interfering with a federal officer in May, after an incident at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, New Jersey, that month. She was indicted by a grand jury in June and pleaded not guilty to all three charges later that month.
The DOJ alleges that McIver slammed a federal agent with her forearm, grabbed him, and struck another agent during a scuffle between Democratic officials and federal law enforcement outside the facility.
McIver was able to avoid censure in the House for her actions in September, when five Republicans joined all Democrats to vote down the measure.
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The Thursday ruling keeping the charges against McIver alive marks the latest victory for the DOJ in avoiding the dismissal of high-profile charges against officials for allegedly interfering with federal immigration enforcement.
Earlier this year, a federal judge denied Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan’s bid to dismiss DOJ-levied obstruction charges for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant in her court escape federal officers by letting him out a back door. The trial against Dugan is scheduled for next month in federal court.
