GEOFF BENNETT: Now to a development in the Trump DOJ's case against Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, who's been charged with two counts of assault.

It's part of an emerging strategy from the Justice Department, which is undoing Biden era policies and pursuing some of President Trump's perceived political adversaries.

William Brangham has more.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Appearing virtually in her first court appearance since the department brought charges against her this week, Representative McIver was released with out bail today with a hearing set for later this month.

She is charged with assaulting, resisting and impeding an officer after a visit to an immigration detention facility in New Jersey turned into a scuffle.

Members of Congress are permitted to conduct unannounced oversight visits.

So, to discuss this and more, we are joined again by Carrie Johnson.

She is the justice correspondent at NPR.

Carrie, so good to see you, as always.

CARRIE JOHNSON, Justice Correspondent, NPR: Thanks.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, about these assault charges against Representative McIver.

She was trying to stop the arrest, she says, of Newark's mayor, who was there also protesting at this ICE detention facility.

She's denied the accusations, said that they're basically trumped-up.

Here's what she said on the cable news this morning.

REP. LAMONICA MCIVER (D-NJ): It's crazy because there's so many other crimes and things to be focused on, and definitely not to be focused on a congresswoman or congressmembers who were there just to do an oversight visit.

We were not there to bust detainees out of prison.

We have heard that come out from the DOJ.

We were there for an oversight visit.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: How unusual is it to prosecute a member of Congress like this?

CARRIE JOHNSON: In my experience, it's very unusual to bring this kind of federal prosecution, serious federal prosecution against a sitting lawmaker for something that doesn't involve financial misconduct, corruption or bribery.

Those kinds of cases are unusual too.

But to charge a lawmaker who says they were engaged in routine oversight as part of their day job with assaulting or impeding a federal agent is a very serious thing.

Representative McIver faces as many as eight years in prison each of these two charges.

She's, of course, denied responsibility.

But it's a big deal even to bring such a case to begin with.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Of course, this occurred at a protest at an immigration detention center, and it certainly seems to be part of this -- both the president's immigration policies and Democrats who are trying to muster a resistance to it.

CARRIE JOHNSON: Yes, I don't think you can untangle the idea that, at first, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, who's one of Trump's former personal lawyers, charged the mayor of Newark.

Today, they took back those charges.

And the federal judge allowed the DOJ to take back those charges against Mayor Ras Baraka basically said this was embarrassing.

It's a very serious thing to bring these kinds of charges, and the DOJ needs to do a proper investigation.

This is the same day Representative McIver appeared virtually in court on similar charges.

And her allies say, if she had engaged in such serious misconduct at that ICE facility, why was she allowed later that day or within a few moments to go into the facility and tour it if she was such a danger?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In another development, while the president has said there should be investigations into Bruce Springsteen and Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce, the Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Andrew Cuomo, the former New York state governor, over his handling of the pandemic.

What's that investigation all about?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Well, Republicans in Congress had been investigating how Cuomo in New York state handled the pandemic and handled nursing home residents in the pandemic.

Cuomo testified on Capitol Hill.

And, since that time, two different Republicans have sent referrals to the Justice Department, alleging Cuomo made false statements.

Cuomo says he testified truthfully and to the best of his knowledge, but now DOJ seems to be investigating or looking into whether Cuomo misstated or misled lawmakers about his viewing or editing of a report about that topic, senior citizens in nursing homes and -- in the pandemic.

And so it's interesting because this is all happening or coming out about a month before the primary to be the mayor of New York City.

Cuomo is running in that race.

And another person who's running is Eric Adams, the sitting mayor of New York City.

Adams, of course, famously got rid of charges against himself after the DOJ, the new DOJ, in the Trump administration dropped that case.

The matter was so scandalous, so controversial that more than a dozen career prosecutors resigned over it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right, another extraordinary case in the department.

Thirdly, the Department of Justice is also going to drop these police reform agreements -- they're known as consent decrees -- in Minneapolis and Louisville.

These are consent decrees that were signed after investigations into the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

The DOJ is also dismissing lawsuits against those cities, said they're going to drop several other probes.

What's happening with those?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Yes, Harmeet Dhillon, who is now in charge of the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, says she doesn't want the federal government micromanaging how state and local police do their job.

She says these consent degrees and investigations are very expensive for states and locals and that they often know what's best in terms of setting law enforcement priorities.

She's dropping these cases against Louisville and against Minneapolis, only a few days, of course, before the anniversary, the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

But Dhillon says the timing is not because of that anniversary, but because she had some court deadlines this week.

She says that they will continue to prosecute individual bad actor police officers if and when they come across those cases.

But she seems to think that these consent degrees take too much time, cost too much money and divert from other priorities she wants to advance.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And has that been a criticism that the police departments themselves -- they entered into these agreements, but have they argued that these somehow hamstring their ability to be police officers?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Some police departments have resisted, as have some state and local governments, because this is an expensive process.

But some independent authorities and analysts like the Council on Criminal Justice have said they have studied some of these agreements.

They do find that litigation costs for these places are lower because police are behaving better in a lot of cases.

And the numbers of stops and frisk and unconstitutional practices by police have gone down in some of these places.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lastly, the Justice Department is also focusing on the issue of diversity.

The DOJ said it was going to open an investigation into the city of Chicago.

Briefly, what is going on there?

What are they alleging?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago made some recent remarks about hiring people perhaps on the basis of ethnicity or race.

And Harmeet Dhillon in the Civil Rights Division at DOJ are not pleased with that.

They want to investigate whether that was an unlawful situation that the mayor of Chicago admitted to.

He says they're going after him because they don't like his priorities and because he's a political adversary and outspoken critic of the administration.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Carrie Johnson, so many different threads you're helping us disentangle here.

Thank you so much.

CARRIE JOHNSON: My pleasure.