Trump’s DOJ Indicted a Democratic Congresswoman. The Case Could Fall Apart.

Rep. LaMonica McIver’s arrest on Tuesday is the most recent significant step in the Trump administration’s attempts to stifle political and public criticism of the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

President Trump’s decision to send the National Guard and Marines to respond to protests in Los Angeles and the legality of the administration’s deportation effort coincide with the decision to move forward with an indictment after the initial charges against the Democrat from New Jersey. Heartbreaking photos of arrests in courthouses and further Justice Department confessions of erroneous deportations have resulted from that effort in recent weeks. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the nation lawfully during the previous administration are being deported by the current government.

In each particular federal case, it is generally assumed that the Justice Department will secure a conviction because that is what occurs over 90% of the time. The administration that is prosecuting McIver for a fight at a government facility is the same one that pardoned hundreds of people who were accused (and in many cases found guilty) of violently assaulting or resisting officers during the siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. This is just one of the many peculiarities and political baggage that accompany McIver’s case.

Conviction at trial, if it ever comes to that, is ultimately far from certain. Furthermore, the likelihood that McIver will ever be imprisoned for even a single day on the accusations seems slim, if not nonexistent, for a number of reasons.

Following an altercation last month when McIver and two other members of the House arrived to examine an ICE detention facility in Newark, McIver is charged in the indictment with two felony counts of physically attacking, resisting, or obstructing two Homeland Security agents. Ras Baraka, the mayor of New Jersey, was also there. McIver is charged with the same offense as a single misdemeanor on a third count in the indictment.

Shortly after the meeting, prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against McIver, charging him with the first two offenses. Prosecutors frequently utilize a criminal complaint, a charge form that only needs a magistrate judge’s permission, to get a case started as soon as possible (without having to empanel and present evidence before a grand jury). However, prosecutors need a grand jury indictment before they can move forward with criminal charges.

According to the Justice Department, one of the officers told Baraka to leave a secure section of the area outside the facility while also admitting that, as a member of Congress, he or she had the legal authority to visit ICE detention centers without giving prior notice.