Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) knocked acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba over her prosecution of his fellow Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), calling the charges against her “trash.”
Habba charged the first-term congresswoman with two counts of assault stemming from the incident in which she and two of her colleagues sought to inspect a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility, as permitted by their oversight authority as members of Congress.
Goldman spoke about the case during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight” on Tuesday.
“We’re talking about it, calling out why this is such trash, and this is absolutely improper and unacceptable,” he said in comments highlighted by Mediaite. “What I find to be interesting is within 30 days, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey is gonna have to go to the grand jury and present evidence and ask a grand jury to file an indictment.”
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) also attempted to view the facility but doesn’t have the same oversight authority as the Congress members. He was initially charged with a count of trespassing, a misdemeanor, but Habba’s office dropped the charge “for the sake of moving forward.”
The criminal complaint against McIver alleges she “slammed her forearm into the body” of a Homeland Security Investigations agent and “used each of her forearms to forcibly strike” another agent.
Body camera footage of the standoff shows a scuffle, but deciphering exactly what happened from the video and photos is difficult.
McIver has argued that ICE agents created an “unnecessary and unsafe confrontation” as they arrested Baraka. She’s rejected the charges against her and alleged that they are politically motivated.
Goldman suggested prosecuting the case may lead to a similar situation to what occurred in the Southern District of New York earlier this year as numerous prosecutors resigned rather than move to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), who was accused of bribery.
Critics alleged a quid-pro-quo occurred in which Adams’s charges were dropped in exchange for Adams working with the administration on its policy priorities, particularly around immigration, which the mayor has denied.
“And I want to see if, like what we saw in the Southern District of New York, where there was just a parade of resignations when they were asked to do something that was so clearly political and so clearly contrary to their oath of office,” Goldman said. “Alina Habba doesn’t care. She’s a hack.”
Habba is a former personal attorney for President Trump. She was chosen as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey in late March, after briefly serving as a counselor to the White House.
