More than a month after U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper declined to throw out federal charges against her, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) filed a notice of appeal today that will kick the matter up to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Semper still has yet to issue a ruling on whether or not to dismiss Count Two of the indictment against McIver, however, leaving the full scope of McIver’s appeal undetermined for now.
“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,” McIver said in a statement. “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.”
McIver was charged with assault and impeding arrest back in May, after an oversight visit at Newark’s Delaney Hall immigrant detention center descended into chaos. The congresswoman and two of her colleagues had attempted to stop ICE agents from arresting Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, prompting a brief scuffle that later became the basis of the charges against McIver; trespassing charges against Baraka were later dropped, with a federal magistrate judge calling the proceedings “worrisome” and “embarrassing.”
In August, McIver filed a wide-ranging series of motions arguing that the indictment was politically motivated, represented an example of vindictive prosecution, and violated her right to legislative immunity under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause – and, thus, must be dismissed.
But Semper disagreed, ruling on November 13 that the Trump administration’s actions were not obviously motivated by politics, and that McIver’s conduct did not qualify as official legislative business and thus was not protected by the Speech or Debate clause. “No genuine legislative purpose was advanced by Defendant’s alleged conduct,” Semper wrote in one key part of his ruling.
Semper withheld judgment, though, on one count of the indictment pending the release of further evidence and body camera footage, which delayed the timeline for McIver to file an appeal. McIver’s attorneys and the Department of Justice each submitted supplemental briefs on the new evidence earlier this month, and Semper has yet to issue a final ruling on that charge; if he once again rules against McIver, she may add that to her Third Circuit appeal.
Several other important developments have taken place since Semper issued his ruling. For one, the prosecutor who had spearheaded the case against McIver, former interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, has been booted from office after several federal judges determined she was appointed unlawfully; the U.S. Attorney’s office is now in a state of flux, with three different prosecutors temporarily in charge of different divisions.
For another, McIver recently made a return to Delaney Hall for the first time since the original May snafu. At a December 23 visit alongside Reps. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) and Yvette Clarke (D-New York), McIver said that it was “very traumatic to be back here personally,” but that she felt she needed to continue performing oversight in the wake of a detainee’s death.
