Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Gregg Jarrett Explains Why Assault Charges Against Dem Rep Could Stick

Screenshot/Rumble/Fox News

Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said on Tuesday that Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey could be convicted on assault charges based on bodycam footage.

Interim United States Attorney Alina Habba of the District of New Jersey announced the charges against McIver for the congresswoman’s involvement in a May 9 fracas outside the ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey, during which Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark was arrested, that also involved Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez Jr. of New Jersey. Jarrett said McIver wouldn’t need to physically attack an ICE agent to be guilty.

“I want to take her being a congresswoman off the table and just the laws that were broken here and what they are saying that they are going to charge her with,” “Fox and Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones said. “It’s 18 U.S. Code 111(a)(1): assaulting and impeding certain officers and employees. That’s forcefully assault, resist, oppose, impede. Intimidate or interferes with. Does she meet that?”

WATCH:

“Well, the feds say it does. The body cam footage that they have, that others haven’t seen, they say shows Re. McIver committing assault under the statute. We have all seen some of the other video. There is a lot of shoving going on,” Jarrett responded. “But, Lawrence, understand that assault doesn’t exclusively require physical contact. It can include intimidation or threats that create a reasonable apprehension of harm to a law enforcement officer. So, you know, her words are equally as important as her physical acts. And, of course, she is presumed innocent. She will get her day in court.”

Upon taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued several executive orders to address illegal immigration, including designating Mexican drug cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and the El Salvadoran prison gang MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations. Jarrett said McIver’s claims that she was attempting to conduct oversight would not fly.

“But if her defense is, as she now claims, that, ‘Oh, I was just exercising legislative oversight,’ that’s not going to work because lofty status as a member of Congress confers no special exemption for criminal acts,” Jarrett said. You know, she and her fellow Democrats could have made an appointment to inspect the detention facility. That’s the normal, orderly process.”

“But instead, Homeland Security says they stormed through a gate, tried to get past security,” Jarrett continued. “That’s when the melee occurred, as officers stopped them. Democrats spent the last four years telling us, Lawrence, that nobody is above the law. Well, Rep. McIver may find out that they were right about that.”