A Republican measure to censure a Democratic lawmaker targeted with criminal charges by the Trump administration went down in flames after a handful of GOP members of Congress crossed over to vote against it, reported NBC News on Wednesday.
The resolution was targeting Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who was indicted earlier this year by President Donald Trump's acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney and former personal lawyer Alina Habba, over her protest alongside other New Jersey lawmakers at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. Habba alleges that McIver assaulted officers trying to arrest New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka, which McIver denies.
"Five Republican members defected and joined all Democrats to kill the resolution. Two other Republicans voted present. That was enough to table the measure," said the report. The resolution was introduced by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) on Tuesday night, "as a privileged matter, the fast-track process that forces a vote within two legislative days. This was his second attempt, as he had also introduced the resolution before the August recess."
Some of the lawmakers who voted no or present, Axios noted, are members of the House Ethics Committee, who are running their own parallel investigation of McIver. "I think best to let Ethics Committee finish its report," Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who sits on the committee, told Axios after he voted against the resolution.
More recently, Habba's entire appointment to serve as a federal prosecutor has been thrown into legal doubt.
A group of judges decided to remove her after the Senate did not move forward with a permanent confirmation — a highly unusual move reserved for uniquely unqualified candidates. The Justice Department responded by firing the judicially-appointed replacement and putting Habba in that role to effectively reinstate her, but a federal judge last month ruled she has not been legally serving for weeks.
Habba has refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of that decision, because "I am the pick of the president."