Habba announces criminal charge against Rep. McIver

Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, announced Monday she is charging Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) with assaulting law enforcement while at an ICE detention center in Newark earlier this month. 

It marks the first time that President Trump’s Justice Department has charged a sitting lawmaker during his second term, a major escalation stemming from when McIver tried to gain access to the Delaney Hall ICE detention center along with two other congressional Democrats and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) earlier this month. 

Habba’s office previously charged Baraka with a misdemeanor trespassing charge. She simultaneously announced on Monday that his charge would be dropped “for the sake of moving forward.”