Marie Claire Reveals How Pelosi, Crockett, Ocasio-Cortez, and More are Banding Together After the Trump Administration Came for One of Their Own: LaMonica McIver
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, yesterday Marie Claire released a major feature documenting the fight to protect Congresswoman LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) from politically motivated charges brought by the Trump administration that threaten to send McIver to prison for 17 years.
The profile comes just days before the one-year anniversary of McIver’s initial visit to Delaney Hall—the encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that led to the charges against her—and details how, in that time, McIver’s fellow members of Congress have built their own legal and personal defense playbook when institutional party structures failed to act.
The piece interviews Congresswomen (including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Reps. Yvette Clarke, Jasmine Crockett, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar) and is the largest number of sitting congresswomen ever assembled for a single U.S. magazine story.
The full piece is available here.
On what nearly a year fighting the Trump DOJ has brought for McIver:
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[L]egal fees approaching a million dollars, racist bile and threats online, confrontations with Republican colleagues in the building where she still shows up to do the job that got her charged in the first place—and a fight that, as of this writing, is still ongoing.
On establishment failures:
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[T]he Democratic establishment—as McIver would learn the hard way—had no playbook for a fight like this. So the women built one themselves, with the understanding that any one of them could be next.
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[A] network of congresswomen has made McIver their business. [...] But what McIver has also come to learn is that beyond this circle, the support largely ends. The party’s national organizations—the DCCC, the DNC—have no system in place for a situation like this. What hurts “bigger than the charges,” McIver tells me, “is the support that I just have not gotten.”
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The administration created the crisis. But the party, it turned out, had no system in place to meet it. When another member was threatened months after McIver was charged and came to her asking how she’d found a lawyer—“Is it the DCCC?”—McIver had to tell her the truth: “No one helped me.”
Speaker Pelosi on the case:
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None of the [women interviewed] think it’s a coincidence that the charges landed on McIver. “They knew she was going to be effective,” Pelosi tells me.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez on the case:
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Ocasio-Cortez was on the phone with McIver [...] with a directive: “You’re going to need money.” She was right. Members of Congress cannot accept pro bono legal defense for cases like this, and no institutional fund exists to cover one. “LaMonica was one of the first members of Congress to take on ICE and put literally herself and her body on the line,” she tells me. “A pat on the back and congratulations and praise is not enough.”
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Ocasio-Cortez puts it in terms anyone with a job would understand: “It is a total failure and an indictment of our systems that this member has to fundraise for the legal defense of conducting her own constitutional responsibilities. Imagine showing up to your job and someone sues you personally for doing your job. That’s supposed to be the company.” McIver, she says, was asked to take a risk and then left to carry the cost alone: “Once you’ve stuck your neck out and done a courageous thing, you are largely left to fend for yourself.”
Rep. Crockett on the case:
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Crockett, who has told McIver she plans to make herself available to her legal team after she leaves Congress in January, is blunt about why: “I have trust issues and I look at her as my own family. That’s how serious this is for me.”
Rep. Sykes on the case:
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On a call with Democratic leadership, when the chair started urging members to fight harder, [Sykes] cut in: LaMonica did that, and now she’s looking at 17 years. “Now what’s the next thing we’re going to cheer on,” she says, “and who’s the next person we’re going to sacrifice so that we can say you all fought appropriately?”
Rep. McIver, on her continuing work:
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McIver’s case is now before the Third Circuit [...] the last chance to get the charges dismissed before a trial, barring an appeal to the Supreme Court. She is still raising money for her defense, still working, fighting, and planning her life around the possibility that she could lose it. Despite everything, she has brought back over $10 million to her district for community projects. “When you have an administration who’s working so hard to stop you from doing the work on behalf of the people that you represent, I take that personally,” she tells me.
In April, McIver and counsel filed a brief that argues that the Trump Department of Justice cannot prosecute McIver for doing her job, nor can it selectively prosecute her because of her opposition to the administration’s mass deportation agenda. The government has now replied to that brief.
McIver is appealing the decisions by the district court, declining to dismiss the case that was filed against her by then-interim U.S. Attorney, and Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba. McIver’s next court appearance will be in relation to this appeal. Oral arguments before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals are slated for June 23, 2026.