Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., exits the grounds at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility, May 9 in Newark, N.J.Angelina Katsanis/AP
Depending on whom you ask, the United States is either sliding into fascism or smack in the middle of it. Either way, it’s not good. But should future historians attempt to identify when this fascist crackdown kicked off in earnest, they may settle on Rep. LaMonica McIver.
In May, the Justice Department charged the New Jersey congresswoman with three counts of assaulting and interfering with law enforcement officials after a chaotic clash outside Delaney Hall, a private immigration detention center in Newark plagued by reports of inhumane conditions. At the time, McIver— along with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and two other Democratic members of Congress—had been conducting a congressionally mandated oversight visit when masked officers suddenly pounced to arrest Baraka. Ten days later, prosecutors dropped the trespassing charges against Baraka, only to then federally charge McIver.
“They made a fool of themselves,” Ras Baraka says, referring to the shocking body cam footage. “They didn’t have a case.” The mayor called the decision to move on to targeting McIver an effort by federal prosecutors to “save face.”
The charges do not mention that McIver is a Democrat. But the Trump administration has since been unabashed in relishing the persecution of a perceived political enemy. In fact, they have stamped prejudice all over the case. “The days of woke are over,” President Donald Trump told reporters, praising the charges against McIver. “The days of that crap are over.”
Alina Habba, the US attorney who filed the charges against McIver, hasn’t been shy about describing her work as overtly political: Shortly after her appointment, Habba said on a podcast that she believed her efforts as a prosecutor could help “turn New Jersey red.” (Habba, a former personal lawyer for Trump, is now at the center of an extraordinary showdown between the Trump administration and federal courts after a judge ruled last week that she has been unlawfully serving as the state’s US attorney since July.)
It certainly didn’t help that, according to court documents recently filed by McIver’s lawyers, body cam footage recorded a federal officer telling his colleagues at Delaney Hall, “We are arresting the Mayor right now, per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”
“They made a fool of themselves,” Baraka told Mother Jones, referring to the body cam footage and the decision to drop the charges initially filed against him. “They didn’t have a case.” Baraka described the feds’ decision to instead charge McIver as an effort by prosecutors to “save face.”
So, why target McIver? “She’s been incredibly vocal, and she is a young freshman congresswoman,” Baraka said. “So they think she’s vulnerable. But I think that they are miscalculating this and coming after her because of how she’s aligned herself politically.”
Plenty of members of Congress have been charged with crimes over the years, mostly over various forms of corruption. But charges against McIver sure look like a pretext for prosecuting her over her politics. That hasn’t been attempted since shortly after the founding of this country. You have to reach back to 1799, when Rep. Matthew Lyon of Vermont—also known as the “Spitting Congressman” after spewing tobacco juice into the face of a Federalist lawmaker—was imprisoned for violating the Alien and Sedition Acts over his authorship of editorials critical of President John Adams.
A federal judge is now deliberating over McIver’s motion to dismiss the charges against her. But even if the court decides the case is nothing more than naked political retribution and drops the prosecution, what is there to say about the time and money spent to get there? After all, fighting charges brought by the federal government isn’t cheap, and House Ethics and Campaign Finance rules prohibit members of Congress from accepting any kind of pro bono legal counsel to fight such charges. (It’s unclear exactly how much McIver has paid in legal fees, but a source close to the congresswoman confirmed that she is paying for it out of her campaign account, meaning she essentially has to fundraise for it.)
One doesn’t have to be a blue-blood, die-hard Democrat, Never-Trumper, liberal, or even an occasional Trump critic to see plainly that none of this happens in a healthy, functioning democracy. Nor is it hyperbolic to observe that should the case make it to trial, that could accelerate Trump’s ultimate revenge fantasy: the chance of locking up anyone he wants, using the weakest evidence and the full backing of the nation’s law enforcement agencies.
Yet the shocking elements of McIver’s indictment and potential trial appear to have mostly been lost on an American public overwhelmed, justifiably, with the uncontrolled spigot of anti-democratic behavior from the president and his bootlicking allies. And should the judge ultimately allow the case to go to trial, let it be clear: This is the logical extreme of a president who won on the promise to “lock her up.” Others will follow.