A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a lower court’s ruling that Alina Habba is unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, thus dealing another blow to Donald Trump’s efforts to install loyalists in U.S. attorney offices across the country.
Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, who had charges brought against her by Habba, sat down with the co-hosts of “The Weeknight” to discuss the disqualification of the president’s former personal attorney and the government’s case against her.
McIver is facing charges stemming from a May confrontation outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark. The indictment alleges the Democrat assaulted officers during a scuffle. McIver has pleaded not guilty and said the case against her is politically motivated.
The New Jersey Democrat told MS NOW that Monday’s ruling “confirms what we know about this administration” and “how chaotic, how illegal they are, and the way they do business.”
“I think people forget, I was not there for a protest,” McIver said of the May incident. “I was there to do my job, to have an oversight visit. And I’m standing firm on that, I’m not folding on that. That is what I showed up there to do. That chaos that was created was totally on the Department of Justice and Homeland Security.”
While Habba’s appointment has been ruled invalid, McIver said the issue at hand is much larger. “This is not about Alina Habba,” she said, “The bottom line is: This administration, this president, wants to do everything in their power — no matter how they get there, no matter how many rules they break — to stop Congress and Democratic members of the Senate from doing their job, from holding them accountable.”
However, McIver pledged that she would not be deterred. “Right now, I’m going to continue to show up for the people of New Jersey, and, quite frankly, for this country, and protect them from this administration,” she said.
You can watch McIver’s full interview on “The Weeknight” in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.