Lawyers for US Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) claimed she was protected by free speech when she was arrested for allegedly assaulting cops at an anti-ICE protest — and “she wouldn’t have drawn a flagrant foul in the Knicks-Spurs game” for the move anyway.
The NJ congresswoman is facing up to 17 years behind bars for the May 2025 tussle outside Garden State ICE facility Delaney Hall, in which she allegedly “slammed” her forearm into an agent and tried to grab him as Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for a since-dropped trespassing charge.
McIver and her lawyers were in a federal appeals court in Delaware Wednesday arguing the case should be tossed out against her because she’s protected by free speech and immunity and because she’s being politically targeted by the Trump administration, according to a report by Politico.
The rep’s defense attorney Paul Fishman argued before the three-judge appeals panel that the charges should be dismissed against her because members of Congress benefit from immunity similar to the immunity that police officers have.
“She wouldn’t have drawn a flagrant foul in the Knicks-Spurs game,” the lawyer argued, implying the force she used didn’t rise to a criminal level.
Judge Stephanos Bibas, a President Trump nominee, was skeptical of Fishman’s arguments that McIver is protected by qualified immunity.
Still, Bibas admitted that a jury may have a hard time swallowing the charges against McIver and that the Department of Justice was rolling the dice with this prosecution.
And Judge Cindy Kyounga Chung, a Biden nominee, and Judge Thomas Ambro, a Clinton nominee, both suggested it was rare for charges to be brought against a legislator for such contact.
The majority of cases against members of Congress are tied to corruption and bribery.
Ambro even questioned whether the appellate court should toss the case since it appeared the DOJ was trying to “get a pound of flesh” and embarrass McIver with a trial.
Outside court after McIver said “the point of it all is cruelty … the process is the pain for them, and they enjoy that, and they’re watching me, a new member of Congress, go through that.”
The May 9, 2025 dust-up happened as the Democratic mayor, Baraka, was trying to join a group visiting Delaney Hall for a congressional oversight visit at the facility as people were protesting. McIver and the demonstrators surrounded Baraka in forming a chaotic scrum around him, video showed.
At one point, McIver placed her left elbow and then her right elbow into an officer and pushed but it was unclear if it was intentional or incidental.
McIver has pleaded not guilty to three charges claiming she assaulted, resisted and impeded the officers during the scuffle.
