The resignation of the acting United States attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, puts into sharp relief the stakes of the ongoing prosecution in the Garden State of a Democratic congresswoman, LaMonica McIver. 

Ms. McIver is charged with three felony counts, a prosecution that has enraged some Democrats on Capitol Hill. Ms. McIver could face 17 years in prison if convicted and has pleaded “not guilty.” 

In May of this year, a formal delegation of Ms. McIver and other Democratic members of Congress arrived at the gates of the ICE facility at Newark’s Delaney Hall to investigate conditions of the illegal migrants being held there. When Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, tried to join the delegation, guards sought to arrest him. Ms. McIver joined a “human shield” of supporters seeking to protect Mr. Baraka. What resulted was a modest melee.

The Department of Justice asserts that during this melee,  Ms. McIver, who was charged in June, “slammed her forearm into the body of one law enforcement officer and also reached out and tried to restrain that officer by forcibly grabbing him. McIver also used each of her forearms to forcibly strike a second officer.” She is accused of “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers.”

The melee was caught on video. Ms. McIver was certainly in the scrum, but whether she was guilty of “slamming” or “forcibly grabbing” may be in the eye of the beholder — or a future jury.

Ms. Habba, then New Jersey’s top prosecutor, was the one who  launched criminal cases against Mr. Baraka and Ms. McIver. Both faced felony charges. The charges against Mr. Baraka were dropped after a judge reprimanded Ms. Habba’s office for a “hasty arrest” and “a worrying misstep.”

The case against Ms. McIver, however, is going strong,  and it’s likely that this  prosecution of a prominent Democrat, sealed Ms. Habba’s fate. The Senate custom known as “blue slipping” requires that both of a state’s senators sign off on a nominee for United States attorney for that potential prosecutor to come up for a confirmation vote. New Jersey’s two senators — Andy Kim and Cory Booker — are both Democratic critics of the president who have blasted the prosecutions. 

Ms. Habba’s interim appointment, with her path to confirmation blocked, expired after 120 days. The federal judges in New Jersey rejected Ms. Habba and installed another lawyer, Desiree Lee Grace. Ms. Bondi fired Ms. Grace and named Ms. Habba as acting United States attorney. Both a trial judge, Matthew Brann, and the Third United States Appeals Circuit rejected that maneuver.

Ms. Habba’s resignation was announced on X on Thursday by Attorney General Bondi, who described herself as “saddened” but acknowledged that it had become “untenable” for Ms. Habba to “effectively run her office.” Ms. Habba declared “do not mistake compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.” 

Ms. Bondi accuses New Jersey’s federal judges of an  “unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility” against Ms. Habba, but federal law appears to assign those jurists — the overwhelming number of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents —  the task of picking her replacement. That replacement could elect to proceed with the case against Ms. McIver or drop it. Ms. McIver was first elected to Congress via a special election in 2024. 

Another scenario in this highly unusual situation would unfold if Ms. Bondi would fire the replacement prosecutor chosen by the judges, beginning anew the cycle that led to Ms. Habba’s resignation. The issue of interim prosecutorial appointments is fast becoming a major challenge for the administration’s effort to pursue its agenda at the DOJ. 

In any event Ms. Habba secured a significant victory last month when a judge rejected Ms. McIver’s motion to dismiss the case. The judge, Jamal Semper — an appointee of President Biden — denied Ms. McIver’s request that the prosecution be tossed as an infringement on the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which offers lawmakers absolute immunity — among the law’s strongest protections —  for actions relating to legislative work.

Ms. McIver contended that her actions at the Newark immigration facility ought to be protected as an extension of her lawmaking duties. Judge Semper, though, ruled that “Impeding an arrest, whether lawful or unlawful, goes beyond any reasonable definition of oversight and, accordingly, exceeds the safe harbor of legislative immunity” and that the mere presence of a lawmaker “does not grant constitutional protection for every act performed in connection to that visit.”

Judge Semper also rejected a motion by Ms. McIver to dismiss the case as a “selective” and “vindictive” prosecution — a similar petition to the ones filed in Virginia by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and the former FBI director, James Comey. Those two had their charges dismissed because a judge ruled that the case’s prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was, like Ms. Habba, also unlawfully appointed by Ms. Bondi.

Judge Semper, though, determined that Ms. McIver “has not demonstrated that her prosecution is a result of personal animus harbored by the prosecution.” Her office declared in a statement after her arraignment that the case is an example of  “Trump weaponizing the DOJ for people who speak out against him, for members and elected leaders who do their jobs to hold this administration accountable. We will not be intimidated.”