Black US senators demand Trump admin drop charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver
Senators Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock, Lisa Blunt Rochester, and Angela Alsobrooks condemned the Department of Justice for trying to "intimidate" and "silence" the New Jersey congresswoman.
All Black Democrats in the U.S. Senate have come together to condemn the criminal charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, demanding that the Trump administration dismiss the case.
“We stand with Representative LaMonica McIver in the face of efforts to intimidate her and silence those who seek to hold this administration accountable,” said U.S. Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland in a joint statement.
A record five Black U.S. senators currently serve in the upper chamber of Congress for the first time in history, following the elections of Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks last November. One of those five is Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who did not join the others in condemning McIver’s charges.
Congresswoman McIver, a freshman representing New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District, was charged with assaulting, impeding, or interfering with law enforcement after a May 9 encounter with ICE agents in Newark during a congressional oversight inspection. McIver was attempting to prevent federal officials from arresting Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, whose charges were dropped by interim New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba.
Habba, a former spokesperson for President Donald Trump, is accused of abusing her prosecutorial authority to serve the Trump administration’s political interests.
McIver was joined by Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr., as they attempted to oversee an immigration detention center that was believed to have been violating standard practices or laws.
“Under federal law, members of Congress have the legally protected authority to conduct oversight inspections of immigration detention facilities. If Representative McIver had posed such a serious threat, she wouldn’t have been invited back inside the Delaney Hall facility to finish her tour that day,” said the group of Black Democratic senators.
Booker, Warnock, Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks pointed out that a federal judge overseeing the criminal case against Baraka “reprimanded” Department of Justice prosecutors in court and dismissed “similarly baseless charges brought against Newark’s mayor.”
“The Department of Justice should drop the case against Representative McIver and direct their resources toward serious matters of public safety,” said the senators. “Their focus should be on faithfully following the law, not settling political scores.”
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