Congresswoman McIver federally indicted on assault charges

A federal grand jury in Newark, N.J. on Tuesday indicted U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver on three assault counts stemming from a May 9 altercation outside a detention center. The Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey is charged with forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers, according to the prosecution. Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba said her office would pursue the case to its end.

Did McIver respond to her indictment? The congresswoman on Tuesday maintained that she was only doing her job. She called the proceedings an attempt at political intimidation. She would enter a plea of not guilty, she said.

What did McIver do? She and two other Congress members were involved in a confrontation with officers outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Newark, N.J., on May 9. A video released by the Department of Homeland Security appeared to show the congresswoman elbowing a masked and uniformed officer. Habba previously said she had given McIver opportunities to address the issue without pursuing criminal charges but she declined.

McIver said back in May that she had been trying to exercise congressional oversight by inspecting how detainees were being treated. ICE agents were responsible for creating an unsafe situation, she argued.

What penalties does McIver face? She could be imprisoned for up to eight years for each of the first two counts of the indictment, and one year for the third count, according to Habba.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on the ICE confrontation, which led to the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.