Habba Told to Release More Video in Assault Case Against Congresswoman

New York|Habba Told to Release More Video in Assault Case Against Congresswoman

A federal judge overseeing a case involving a New Jersey congresswoman accused of assaulting immigration agents ordered the Justice Department on Tuesday to turn over additional videos as he reviews a defense request to dismiss the charges altogether.

The judge, Jamel K. Semper, also told federal prosecutors to encourage the Department of Homeland Security to take down social media posts about the case that he described as prejudicial and “fact free.”

“Make sure they are removed,” Judge Semper said, noting that lawyers for the congresswoman, LaMonica McIver, should “not be in a position to play Whac-a-Mole when there are government officials who are saying things that are not factual.”

The troubled detention center is run by one of the country’s largest private prison companies and has become a hub of protest over President Trump’s mass deportation policies. In June, four detainees used mattresses and bedsheets to escape through the jail’s flimsy walls during unrest over overcrowding and a lack of food.

Alina Habba, who worked as Mr. Trump’s lawyer before being named New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, quickly dropped the case against Mr. Baraka. But her office then accused Ms. McIver, a first-term congresswoman from Newark, of slamming her forearm into one agent and forcibly grabbing another during the scuffle.

Ms. McIver has pleaded not guilty. Her lawyers have asked Judge Semper to dismiss the case before trial, arguing that Ms. McIver is being prosecuted only because she is a Democrat and that the charges are precluded by the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which protects members of Congress from being prosecuted for performing official legislative duties.

“She never would have been charged if she was a Republican,” Paul J. Fishman, one of her lawyers, said Tuesday during a two-hour hearing in Newark federal court.

The hearing came a day after a federal appeals court heard arguments about whether Ms. Habba is lawfully serving as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, in a case that could help clarify the limits of a president’s power to keep U.S. attorneys in office without Senate approval.

On Tuesday, Mark McCarren, a prosecutor with the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of New Jersey, argued that “it simply doesn’t make any sense” that all of Ms. McIver’s conduct should be protected by the speech or debate clause, even if the visit began as an official legislative act. He cited a 1856 case involving the beating of one member of Congress by another, although he incorrectly identified the lawmakers involved, as the defense lawyers and the judge noted in court.

Footage from dozens of video cameras, including at least 11 from agents’ body-worn cameras, captured portions of the brief but volatile interaction on May 9 outside the jail, which is known as Delaney Hall. The government has already turned over many videos from that day, including one in which the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New Jersey can be heard explaining that Mr. Baraka was being arrested at the direction of the deputy attorney general.

He also ordered the Justice Department to search for text messages sent that day by ICE and Homeland Security agents, which Ms. McIver’s legal team is seeking.

“We all know why this is happening,” Ms. McIver said after court. “It’s because I was doing my job — and I will continue to do so.”

Ms. McIver was at Delaney Hall to conduct a legally authorized oversight visit with two other Democratic House members, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez. After Mr. Baraka’s arrest and Ms. McIver’s alleged assault of the agents, she and her House colleagues were permitted back inside Delaney Hall and given a tour.

Mr. Menendez, who also represents parts of Newark, told the several dozen protesters gathered Tuesday outside the federal courthouse that the charges were little more than intimidation tactics brought to try to “silence” Ms. McIver.

“They thought that by bringing charges against a Black woman from the city of Newark they could send a message to the rest of America not to challenge this administration, not to stand up to what they’re trying to do in all of our communities,” he said.