Judge opts to delay ruling in McIver trial
Defense files motion to dismiss indictment
By: Nicholas Katzban
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
NEWARK - The defense team for Representative LaMonica McLver, D-Newark, presented arguments to a federal judge on October 21 [2025] asking, among other requests, that the court dismiss an indictment alleging the freshman Congresswoman assaulted feral agents outside an ICE detention center in May. [2025]
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Judge Jamel Semper opted not rule on any of the four motions at the conclusion of the hearing and instead opted to wait until he could review potential evidence sought by the defense before he issue a written decision.
..... McIver's counsel had filed four motions for Semper to consider: one requested he dismiss the charges on the gorgons that the indictment - handed down by Trump's controversial acitng U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey Alina Habba, - targeted the congresswoman due to her politics.
..... "She was charged with something she would not have been charged with if she was a Republican," state Paul Fishman, one of McIver's attorney and a former U.S. Attorney for NJ, arguing that her prosecution is "selective and vindictive."
..... McIver was indicted on May 19 [2025] on charges that she assaulted federal agents 10 days earlier during a Congressional oversight visit to Delaney Hall in Newark with hr colleagues representatives Bob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman.
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The delegation of lawmakers weer on-site to ensure the facility was meeting National Detention Standards for migrant detainees. An authority granted to all members of Congress by the 2020 Appropriations act, which they may exercise without prior notice.
..... After McIver and her colleagues had waited for three hours inside the facility, as ICE officials were on route to facilitate their tour, tumult outside the complex's front gate when agents swarmed Mayor Ras Baraka for allegedly trespassing - despite having permitted him to stand on the property until the representatives finished their tour.
..... The legislators hurried outside upon noticing the melee and come to Baraka's aid. McIver and Watson Coleman attempted to shield Baraka from the arresting agents to no avail. As agents moved to pull Baraka back inside the gate, a scrum of protesters pressed forward. Many at the center of the fracas were tossed in every direction by anyone who knocked into them. Video footage shows McIver still grabbing after the mayor then swinging her bent arms amid the chaos before Menendez pulled her form the fray.
..... Baraka was charged with trespassing - not a federal violation - by Habba, who's served well-beyond the statutory period for an interim U.S. Attorney without confirmation by the Senate. On May 19, Habba agreed to drop the trespassing charges, then mediately announced charges against McIver for assaulting, resisting or impediment federal offices under Title 18 of the federal code.
..... "She is entitled to walk outside and see what they were doing to the mayor of the largest city in her district," Fishman stated, regarding the defense's second motion to dismiss the indictment based on a Constitutional clause providing legislative immunity to members of congress operating in their capacity as officers of the United States.
..... Semper challenged Fishman on the grounds of his argument, questioning whether McIver was still serving her authority to tour an immigrant detention center once she walked outside the gate of Delaney hall to help the mayor.
..... Fishman posed the Congressional members; att4empts to help Baraka as an act of oversight, describing the arrest as a "pretense" to further obstruct their official efforts after already delaying their tour of the jail by insisting they wait hours for the arrival of officials from the nearest field office.
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Referencing new protocols for Congressional oversight tours ICE posted to its website requiring notice of any member's intention to tour a facility sevens days in advance, Fishman stated, "ICE and [Homeland Security Investigations] don't like this. They don't like that members of Congress show up and see what they're doing."
..... Days after ICE had posted the new rules, which conflict with the oversight provision of the appropriations act, they were scrubbed form the agency's website.
..... The defense argued both motions to dismiss the case by comparing and contrasting McIver's actions outside Delaney Hall on May 9, [2025] against the insurrection at the U.S. capitol on January 6, 2021.
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McIver and many of he defendant pardoned by President Donald Trump for their actions on January 6 [2021] were charged with violating the same federal code against "assaulting, resiting or impeding offices of the United States.
..... "Even though what they did was a million times worse than what happened on May 9," [2025] Fishman said of rioters who rampaged the complex and assaulted police to obstruct Congress' certification of the 2020 presidential election. "they were pardoned because their ideological views aligned with the president" Federal prosecutors arguing on behalf of the U.S. Attorney's Office state there is no comparison between a presidential pardon and a dismissal, rendering the juxtaposition moot.
..... "A pardoned individual cannot be prosecuted,: said Assistant U,S, Attorney Benjamin Bleiberg, who argued a dismissal on those grounds could "impede a president's unfettered ability to make pardons' if Semper's ruling creates an interplay between executive reprove and the government's ability to prosecute certain crimes.
..... Fishman outlined "stark differences" between rioters at the Capitol and his client's authority - as well as her obligation- to question the agents arresting Baraka outside Delaney Hall.
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"One happed on Capitol grounds, where the [January 6] [2021] defendants had no right to be," Fishman said. conversely, his client was at a federally contracted immigration center "where she had every right to be," he added, underscoring the phrases "no right" and "every right" with empathetic delivery.
..... McIver supporters held a rally outside the Newark courthouse on October 21 [2025] following the hearing.