NEW YORK — An unrepentant protester who climbed the base of the Statue of Liberty on a busy Fourth of July in what prosecutors called a ‘‘dangerous stunt’’ pleaded not guilty Thursday to misdemeanor trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Activists packed into a Manhattan courtroom cheered when a federal magistrate judge released Therese Okoumou without bail after she had spent the night behind bars. Okoumou responded by raising her fist.

Outside court, the naturalized US citizen from Congo told reporters she climbed the landmark as a spur-of-the moment protest over the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policies.

‘‘When they go low, we go high and I went as high as I could,’’ Okoumou said, paraphrasing former first lady Michelle Obama.

associated press