As McIver Pleads Not Guilty, Rights Group Sounds Alarm Over Trump 'Intimidation Campaign'

At a hearing in New Jersey on Wednesday, Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pleaded not guilty to multiple charges stemming from an incident outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark last month.

Politico reported that McIver and her attorney said they plan to challenge the charges on both legal and factual grounds.

"At the end of the day, this is all about political intimidation," McIver said to a crowd that gathered outside the courthouse.

The executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, Amol Sinha, said in a statement on Wednesday that the prosecution of McIver is "a shameful escalation of the Trump administration's intimidation campaign against those who refuse to do its bidding."

"The Trump administration is attempting to silence opposition through fear, but New Jersey will not be intimidated by authoritarianism," Sinha also said. "We urge all members of Congress—as well as state and local elected officials—to exercise their oversight authority to provide strong checks and balances on President Trump's abuses of power that continue to undermine the fundamental freedoms at the bedrock of our democracy."

On May 9, McIver two other members of Congress were at an ICE detention facility called Delaney Hall to conduct congressional oversight when the Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka joined them there. When federal agents ordered Baraka to leave and then went to arrest him, McIver and the other lawmakers moved to intervene, according to documentation of the episode and official accounts. NPR reported that the administration's narrative around the episode has shifted over time.

In June, interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced that McIver had been charged with a three-count indictment for forcibly interfering with federal officers.

Following her indictment, McIver released a statement on June 10, saying that the "facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: A brazen attempt at political intimidation."

"This indictment is no more justified than the original charges, and is an effort by Trump's administration to dodge accountability for the chaos ICE caused and scare me out of doing the work I was elected to do. But it won't work—I will not be intimidated," McIver said.

There have been several explosive interactions between federal agents and Democratic officials since May. On June 17, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court in lower Manhattan while escorting an individual out of immigration court. And the week prior, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was handcuffed on the ground after being forcibly removed from a news conference that was held by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.