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“The U.S. attorney for New Jersey said on Monday she was charging a member of Congress from the state with assault and impeding law enforcement during a scuffle caught on video earlier this month at a privately run immigration detention center in Newark. The lawmaker, U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver, a Democrat from Newark, denied wrongdoing and said she was the victim of a politically motivated prosecution at the hands of U.S. Attorney Alina Habba…
“[Habba] announced the case against McIver in a statement in which she said she was also dismissing a trespassing charge previously brought against Newark's mayor, Ras Baraka. Both cases stem from an incident on May 9 at the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, the largest city in New Jersey, while McIver and two other Democratic members from New Jersey's congressional delegation were there for an unannounced inspection.” Reuters
The left is critical of the charges, arguing that they are politically motivated.
“One might grant the charges more benefit of the doubt if not for Donald Trump’s open desire to turn the Justice Department into a tool of political retribution, or his previous record of downplaying attacks against law enforcement. The president has fired career prosecutors, revoked the security clearances of his critics, and installed as FBI director a guy who once threatened to ‘come after’ Trump critics. DOJ has opened an investigation into the leading Democratic fundraising platform on shaky premises…
“Interpreting this as anything other than an attempt to punish criticism and intimidate Democrats is difficult… As with many of Trump’s moves, it’s a test of the system: How will courts, Congress, and above all the American people respond? If they allow Trump to succeed, he’ll have taken a major step toward making dissent illegal.”
David A. Graham, The Atlantic
“The Justice Department also announced on Monday that it was opening a civil rights investigation into Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for — I kid you not — hiring Black people…
“The bunk charges against McIver, who is also Black, stem from another attack on an elected Democrat, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka — who, by the way, is himself Black. That makes three Black elected Democrats targeted in extraordinary ways by the Trump administration this month alone…
“The idea that McIver was assaulting ICE agents is laughable. No officers were injured on the day of Baraka’s arrest. There is a naked hypocrisy in the Trump administration pretending to care about protecting federal law enforcement officers after pardoning over 1,500 people charged in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, which involved brutal assaults on dozens of Capitol Police, who are of course federal officers.”
Natasha Lennard, The Intercept
“[McIver’s] crime? Trying to de-escalate a chaotic scene at that same facility, where ICE officers and protesters were clashing and where her own mayor was being cuffed like a criminal. Video shows her trying to mediate, not throwing punches. But enter Alina Habba, Trump’s personal legal pit bull turned U.S. Attorney, ready to slap felony charges on anyone bold enough to challenge Dear Leader’s immigration agenda…
“You don’t have to squint to see the pattern. Target local Black leaders, progressive women, and any public official who challenges the Trump line—especially when it comes to immigration, equity, or oversight. Weaponize the DOJ to scare the hell out of anyone thinking of doing the same. Doesn’t matter if you’re a mayor in a deep-blue city or a freshman congresswoman trying to do her job. If you step out of line, the hammer comes down.”
Michael Cohen, Meidas
The right applauds the charges, arguing that McIver violated the law.
The right applauds the charges, arguing that McIver violated the law.
“From Democratic members of Congress to judges to city council members, officials claim that their duties include obstructing the official functions of the federal government. It is a type of liberal license that excuses almost any crime in the name of combating what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the ‘modern-day Gestapo’ of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…
“The ACLU called the [charges] ‘authoritarianism’ and insisted that these state and federal politicians ‘have every right to exercise their legally authorized oversight responsibilities for expanded immigration detention in New Jersey.’ The problem with the oversight claim is that McIver’s status as a member of Congress does not allow her access to closed federal facilities. Congress can subpoena the executive branch or secure court orders for access. However, members do not have immunity from criminal laws in unilaterally forcing their way into any federal office or agency.”
Jonathan Turley, New York Post
“As for complaints that the prosecutions are political, well, welcome to the world Democrats created! They have spent the last four years attempting to imprison Donald Trump and his aides at the state and federal levels over nonsense criminal theories regarding NDA payments and (admittedly dumb) election challenges…
“Democrats used the FACE Act to literally turn a sidewalk argument that local police shrugged off into a federal case complete with an armed raid on a peaceful young family, and threw a number of opponents of their abortion-industry allies in prison for years. Democrats spent the last four years screaming about an ‘insurrection’ on January 6 and used the rioters' assaults on law enforcement officers as justification for the commitment of massive amounts of resources to track down people whose only crime was to be present at the riot.”
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
“‘Forty-four percent support the recent arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for trespassing at an immigration detention facility in Newark,’ a recent Emerson College poll of New Jersey voters found. Just 38 percent disagree. In addition, a near-majority of Garden State voters (46 percent) believe ‘recent deportations of undocumented immigrants by the Trump administration have made their community more safe.’ Just under one-quarter of respondents said the opposite…
“It’s unclear what Baraka has gotten out of this stunt, save for an arrest record. The rest of us, however, should be grateful for the mayor’s experiment. We now have data indicating that voters are not nearly as friendly toward the mock civil disobedience that jazzes progressive activists as the resistance left seems to believe.”
Noah Rothman, National Review
