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Appeals court clears Trump admin to continue assault case against NJ Rep.
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Aug 26, 2026
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Aristide Economopoulos for Gothamist
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Aug 26, 2026
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U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver on Wednesday lost her bid to have federal assault charges against her tossed, after a panel of judges from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s prior decision to let the charges stand.
McIver, a Democrat representing Newark and surrounding areas, is accused of assaulting federal officers during a scuffle outside the Delaney Hall ICE detention center last year. McIver had been at the facility with Reps. Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman, fellow New Jersey Democrats, to conduct an oversight visit to the facility, which had opened just days earlier.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was also outside of Delaney Hall that day. Facility guards let Baraka pass through the front gate before federal agents arrested him for trespassing. A federal judge later dismissed the case against the mayor.
The three congressmembers came to Baraka’s aid, and McIver made physical contact with multiple federal agents. That contact became the basis of the federal charges against her. She was indicted about a month after the incident.
McIver, who is pregnant with her second child and due this fall, faces up to 17 years in prison. She pleaded not guilty to the charges and has sought to have the case against her dismissed on grounds that she was conducting legislative actions protected by the Constitution’s speech and debate clause.
McIver has also argued that the federal charges are politically motivated and threaten the Constitution’s separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.
A district court judge previously denied her motion to dismiss, and now the Third Circuit panel rejected her appeal of that denial.
The panel that heard McIver’s appeal was made up of Judge Cindy Chung, a Biden appointee; Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee; and Judge Thomas Ambro, a Clinton appointee. In a split decision, Chung and Bibas ruled that McIver’s actions in coming to the aid of Baraka were not protected legislative actions, and that the prosecution of her does not raise a separation of powers issue.
The majority also ruled that they lacked jurisdiction to decide whether McIver was wrongly targeted for prosecution.
Ambro largely agreed, but dissented on Count Two, which involved McIver making contact against a federal agent that he said could have been interpreted as incidental.
“I would vacate its denial of her motion to dismiss Count Two and remand for additional fact-finding to determine whether she shoved him gratuitously, intending to inflict harm, or merely made incidental contact with [Victim 2] in an effort to re-enter the facility that federal law authorizes her to inspect,” Ambro wrote in his dissent.
Ambro also criticized the majority for declining to consider the Trump administration’s motives for prosecuting McIver. He noted that McIver invoked two protections in her appeal, including “freedom from fear that the Executive will use criminal prosecution to punish legislators for their oversight and political opposition.”
“My colleagues believe vindication of this right is beyond our jurisdiction. I disagree,” Ambro wrote in his dissent. “And where, as here, a legislator has presented evidence that her prosecution was brought as an act of political retaliation, I would allow her discovery into the truth of the matter — not only for her own sake but to safeguard the independence of our legislative bodies.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment.
McIver said in a statement that her lawyers will evaluate her options going forward and will continue to fight the charges.
“To protect the people, their elected representatives must be authorized to conduct oversight of the executive branch without fear of retaliation,” McIver said. “Today’s decision chills that authority and emboldens the Trump administration to continue persecuting our most vulnerable communities, those who try to defend them, and anyone who dares hold the president or his lackeys accountable. I will not fold to this administration.”
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new jersey
Michael Sol Warren
Michael Sol Warren covers New Jersey for WNYC and Gothamist, and previously reported on issues around the Garden State for NJ Spotlight News and NJ Advance Media. He can be reached at [email protected].
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