NEWARK, NJ – Today, after pleading not guilty to charges brought against her, Congresswoman LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) made the following statement to supporters outside of the federal courthouse in Newark:
“First of all, good morning to each and every one of you. I want to thank you all for being here. As Paul just mentioned, I just left out of court and pleaded not guilty—because I'm not guilty, and we will fight this.
“At the end of the day, this is all about political intimidation. The Trump administration and his, you know, him and his colleagues or cronies—whatever you want to call them—have weaponized the federal government. They’ve weaponized the Department of Justice. And anybody who stands up to them, anyone who criticizes them, anyone who fights back against them, finds themselves in these hairs that we're in today—in this moment in time that I'm dealing with right now.
“That does not stop me from doing my job. At the end of the day, we went to Delaney Hall for an oversight visit because members of Congress had the right to hold these agencies accountable. And that is what we went to Delaney Hall for. We did not go there to protest, we did not go there for any of that. We went there to make sure that this facility was up to par and the detainees there were getting due process. And this is what occurred out of all of that.
“We've seen different cases of this administration bullying and intimidating elected leaders—from judges to anyone that gets in their way, this is what they do. And we will not not stand for it. I will not stand for it.
“They will not intimidate me, they will not stop me from doing my job, I will continue to do what the people of the 10th Congressional District elected me to do.
“I'm going to continue to stand up for New Jersey because we're better than this. And New Jersey says no to Trump's hateful policies, and we'll continue to do that.
“Each and every one of you who are here, who continue to express your First Amendment right, who continue to stand up to this administration—do not back down. Do not back down. That is what they want us to do, and we will not do that.
“So we look forward to the next time in court. We're gonna take this all the way through. They know they're wrong, and we're gonna prove the wrong because the facts are on our side.
“No matter what headline they tweet about, no matter what they put on their Twitter—we know that the facts are on my side, and we're gonna be in court defending them.
“I want to thank each and every one of you in this bitter heat for being here. To my mayor, Mayor Ras J. Baraka, who is here; to my assemblywoman, Cleopatra Tucker, who is here; to all of the council people from the city of Newark—I see councilwoman Louise Scott-Rountree, I see Dupre Kelly, I see Pat Council. I see so many people out here, I see people from Jersey City, Councilman Solomon, so many folks who were out here in the crowd.
“So many friends, so many organizations. To the labor—32BJ SEIU, all of you that are here. So many folks who are here, I just want to say thank you so much for being here. To my senior citizens who are here, my constituents who are here, to New Jersey's 10th, all of the support that we've gotten all up and down the state regarding this case: Thank you for standing with me, and let's continue to stand up.
“I would love to stay here with you, but I'm on my way back to Washington, D.C., to do the job that the people of New Jersey elected me to do.
“I love you all. God bless each and every one of you, and Godspeed. I do want to thank my husband who is here with me today, my mom who is here, and my staff. Thank you so much. I love you guys. Thank you.”
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