(Headline USA) Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-NJ, was indicted Tuesday on federal charges alleging she assaulted and interfered with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center while Newark’s mayor was being arrested after he tried to join a congressional oversight visit at the facility.
Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba announced the grand jury indictment in a post on X.
Today a federal grand jury seated in Newark, New Jersey returned a three-count indictment charging U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver with forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers. This indictment has a maximum penalty of 8 years for Count One, an…
— US Attorney Habba (@USAttyHabba) June 10, 2025
“While people are free to express their views for or against particular policies, they must not do so in a manner that endangers law enforcement and the communities those officers serve,” Habba said.
In a statement, McIver said the charges amounted to the Trump administration trying to scare her.
“The facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: a brazen attempt at political intimidation,” she said.
McIver, a Democrat, was charged in a complaint by Habba last month with two assault charges stemming from the May 9 visit to Newark’s Delaney Hall — a 1,000-bed, privately owned facility that Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses as a detention center.
The indictment includes three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials. Habba said two of the counts carry a maximum sentence of up to eight years in prison. A third has a maximum sentence of one year.
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 “surround 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 struck a police officer.
United States Representative LaMonica McIver has still not been arrested after assaulting multiple federal officers on video.
Within 48 hours of smiling and waving in the Capitol on J6, I was in county jail isolation under 24-hour supervision, charged with 3 crimes, 2 were lies,… pic.twitter.com/ef3iLktGHb
— The Lectern Guy🇺🇸 (@lecternleader) May 11, 2025
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
