In an eight-page complaint, interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba's office said McIver was protesting the removal of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka from a congressional tour of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark on May 9.
The complaint says she attempted to stop the arrest of the mayor and pushed into agents for Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She faces two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding an officer.
McIver has denied any wrongdoing and has accused federal agents of escalating the situation by arresting the mayor. She denounced the charge as "purely political" and said prosecutors are distorting her actions in an effort to deter legislative oversight.
"They caused the confrontation, Homeland came and caused this chaos that we see was a very tense situation but it could have easily not happened," she said.
McIver said she rejected a plea deal offered by the DOJ because prosecutors wanted her to admit to doing something that she did not do.
The congresswoman was not arrested that day, but Baraka was taken into custody.
The U.S. Attorney in New Jersey dropped the charges against Baraka on Monday and shifted the complaint to Rep. McIver.
Baraka spoke about the charge against the congresswoman. He said he didn't see what happened but thinks the evidence will show the charges won't stand.
"I think that the congresswoman will be vindicated and the videos are clear, everybody can see those videos, they'll see the whole thing and it will be clear to me and clear to her in court," Baraka said.
The protests outside Delaney Hall are continuing.
One of the participants in Tuesday's demonstration was there on may 9 and says the charges against McIver do not reflect what actually happened that day.
"To see the federal government pinpoint this thing on McIver, I'm like wait what are you talking about, first of all, they have to stop saying lies, they weren't even here," said activist Li Adorno.
President Donald Trump reacted to Rep. McIver's charges - expressing disbelief over her actions at the ICE facility earlier this month.
"Oh, give me a break. Did you see her? She was out of control," Trump said. "The days of woke are over."
McIver, 38, first came to Congress in September in a special election after the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. left a vacancy in the 10th District. She was then elected to a full term in November. A Newark native, she served as the president of the Newark City Council from 2022 to 2024 and worked in the city's public schools before that.
House Democratic leaders decried the criminal case against their colleague in a lengthy statement in which they called the charge "extreme, morally bankrupt" and lacking "any basis in law or fact."
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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