Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) is filing an appeal after a federal court declined her motion to dismiss the federal charges brought against her by the Trump administration.
McIver is charged with assaulting law enforcement, stemming from an incident earlier in the year in which she and several other Democratic officials were protesting and seeking access to inspect a private, for-profit Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark, that had been constructed in defiance of local ordinances. Republicans in Congress separately tried to censure McIver over the altercation, but a handful of GOP lawmakers crossed the aisle to defeat it.
McIver insists she did nothing illegal and was merely exercising her statutory authority as a member of Congress to inspect immigration facilities.
In a statement obtained by Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman, McIver vowed to fight this to the end.
"From the beginning, I've fought back against this administration's cruelty and attempts to silence dissent this appeal is the next step in the fight," said McIver. "The Trump administration's case is dangerous, baseless, and designed to stop me from doing my job. I won't."
"This appeal is for everyone who is standing up to this administration as they try to operate without oversight, silence the people who oppose them, and shut down those who protect the vulnerable," her statement continued. "They want to make an example out of me, but I will not let them. I will not be bullied out of doing my job and protecting our communities. Not now, not ever."
This comes weeks after Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney who brought the charges against McIver, resigned from office after multiple federal judges concluded she had been unlawfully appointed to that role. Similar rulings against another improperly appointed DOJ prosecutor threw out criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
