Former Obama-era White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen called the criminal charge against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) “absurd” and predicted it would “not stand” up in court.
“We’ve all seen that video, and it’s absurd to charge a member of Congress, Representative McIver, with doing anything other than doing her job,” Eisen, a frequent critic of President Trump’s administration, said in an interview Monday night on MSNBC.
“Yes, it was an intense situation. There was no crime there,” he added.
Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, announced on Monday she is charging McIver for allegedly assaulting law enforcement while at an U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Newark earlier this month.
The announcement stems from a skirmish during McIver’s visit to the Delaney Hall ICE detention center earlier this month alongside fellow New Jersey Democrats, Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, and with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D), who was arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge, which Habba’s office also announced Monday would be dropped.
McIver and allies have disputed the “assault” characterization and argued the congresswoman would not have been granted access to the facility and given an hour-long tour of the center by administration officials had she first broken the law.
The announcement Monday also marks the first time Trump’s Justice Department has criminally charged a sitting lawmaker during his second term.
Eisen, who has brought legal challenges against various moves by the Trump administration, slammed the federal government for pursuing the charges.
“The Department of Justice under Donald Trump and AG Pam Bondi is running amok,” he said. “Donald Trump promised he’d be a dictator on day one. He kept going. This is the latest example.”
“No normal administration would do this, but the courts are going to have the last word with this. This will not stand,” Eisen added.