Lawyers for Congresswoman LaMonica McIver are asking a federal judge to dismiss charges against her because she is being charged under the same law used against some January 6 defendants who had their charges dropped.

President Trump pardoned more than 1,500 defendants who were charged, convicted, or pleaded guilty for the 2021 events at the Capitol.

“This case charges Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, a sitting Democratic Member of Congress, with violating the same federal assault statute” as more than 160 January 6 defendants who had their cases dismissed, Ms. McIver’s attorneys wrote in a court document obtained by NOTUS. “But the similarity ends there.”

The lawyers stated that Ms. McIver had the right to be at the New Jersey ICE facility where she was arrested because she was there in her capacity as a congresswoman conducting oversight.

The charges stem from a chaotic scene outside an immigration detention center, Delaney Hall, at Newark on May 9. The Democratic mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was charged for allegedly trespassing during the incident, and Democratic lawmakers tried to prevent his arrest.

The Department of Homeland Security released a video from the incident, which it said showed Ms. McIver “assaulting an ICE agent.”

The Department of Justice “cannot pursue charges against her because she is a Democrat who conducts oversight of Executive Branch immigration policy, while dismissing charges brought under the same statute against those whose views they share and who engaged in conduct far more egregious,” the new filing argues.

Ms. McIver’s attorneys argue in another filing that she was just doing her job. “The U.S. Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause guarantees Members of Congress that they ‘shall not be questioned’ for their legislative acts,” the filing states.

Ms. McIver has called the charges “purely political” and she has used the case in her fundraising appeals.

The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, has said there is no political bias connected to the charges. “If any person, regardless of political party, influence, or status, assaults a law enforcement officer as we witnessed Congresswoman McIver do, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she said.