Stacey Plaskett | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2015 | |
| Delegate to theU.S. House of Representatives from theU.S. Virgin Islands'at-large district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Donna Christensen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Stacey Elizabeth Plaskett (1966-05-13)May 13, 1966 (age 59) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (2008–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Republican (before 2008) |
| Spouse | Jonathan Buckney-Small |
| Children | 5 |
| Education | Georgetown University (BS) American University (JD) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | House website Campaign website |
Stacey Elizabeth Plaskett[1][2] (/ˈplæskɪt/PLASS-kit; born May 13, 1966) is an American politician and attorney serving since 2015 as thedelegate to theUnited States House of Representatives from theUnited States Virgin Islands'at-large congressional district. Plaskett has practiced law inNew York City,Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Before 2008, Plaskett was a member of theRepublican Party, and was appointed by PresidentGeorge W. Bush to serve in theCivil Division of the United States Department of Justice.[3] She switched to theDemocratic Party in late 2008 because she believed it was a better place to have new ideas heard.[4] She served as aHouse manager (prosecutor) during thesecond impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the first non-voting House member to do so.[5]
Plaskett was born on May 13, 1966, inBrooklyn,New York,[6] and grew up in theBushwick housing projects.[7] Her parents are both fromSaint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Her father was aNew York City Police Department officer and her mother a clerk in thecourt system. Her family regularly traveled to St. Croix during her childhood, so she became familiar with island traditions and culture.[8] Her parents' home in New York was often home for students and other recent migrants moving to the mainland from the Virgin Islands. She attendedBrooklyn Friends School (a Quaker school) and Grace Lutheran Elementary. She was recruited byA Better Chance, Inc., a nonprofit organization recruiting minority students to selective secondary schools. She was a boarding student atChoate Rosemary Hall, where she was a varsity athlete and served as class president for several years.[9]
Plaskett spent a term abroad inFrance during her enrollment at Choate. She has said that Choate awakened her commitment to public service and a deep sense of responsibility to others through the biblical verse "to whom much is given; much is required". She was one of few black students while she attended the school. In 1988, she graduated with a degree in history and diplomacy from theEdmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service atGeorgetown University.[10]
Plaskett ran for student government at Georgetown under a progressive student ticket and was very active in theAnti-Apartheid Movement. As a student she spoke on behalf of universities in the DC area at theGeneral Assembly of the United Nations. She received herJ.D. degree from theAmerican University Washington College of Law in 1994. She attended law school at night while working full-time during the day with the lobbying arm of theAmerican Medical Association and then with the law firmJones Day.[3] In law school she studied constitutional law under her future colleague, RepresentativeJamie Raskin.[11]
After graduating from law school, Plaskett accepted a position as anassistant district attorney inthe Bronx, New York, underRobert T. Johnson.[7] She prosecuted several hundred cases, including in the Narcotics Bureau. She then worked as a consultant and legal counsel focused on internal corporate investigations and strategy for the Mitchell Madison Group.[9] She moved to Washington, D.C., and worked as counsel on the Republican-led U.S. House of RepresentativesCommittee on Standards of Official Conduct, now known as the House Committee on Ethics or the Ethics Committee.[12] She left the Committee when she was asked by mentor and fellow trustee at Choate,Robert McCallum, to work at theUnited States Department of Justice as a political appointee of then-PresidentGeorge W. Bush.[citation needed]
Plaskett accepted the offer and served as counsel for the assistant attorney general for theDOJ Civil Division, and also as acting deputy assistant attorney general for the Torts Branch in the Civil Division.[3] She then joined the staff of Deputy Attorney GeneralLarry Thompson, primarily working on the Justice Honors program and an initiative to increase the number of minority and women attorneys at the Justice Department.[13] While in the Justice Civil Division, she also worked on the Terrorism Litigation Task Force, theSeptember 11th Victim Compensation Fund andUnited States v. Philip Morris, the case against several major tobacco companies for violations of theRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) by engaging in a conspiracy to deceive the public about the health effects of smoking.[9]
After Thompson resigned, Plaskett joined the staff of his successor,James Comey. She later left government service to become a deputy general counsel atUnitedHealth Group.[3] There, she worked in the Americhoice division, handling legal work related toMedicaid andMedicare programs.[9] She then moved to the Virgin Islands, where she worked in private practice and from 2007 to 2014 served as general counsel for the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority, charged with the economic development of the U.S. territory.[14][15]
Plaskett switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in late 2008.[4] She was initiated into St. Croix Alumnae Chapter ofDelta Sigma Theta sorority in 2019.[16]
During a 2023MSNBC interview, Plaskett said thatDonald Trump "needs to be shot" before correcting herself and saying that he needed to be stopped.[17] This resulted in several conservative commentators calling for her resignation.[18]
In January 2025, Plaskett protested the non-voting rights in Congress for the five delegates and one resident commissioner (Puerto Rico) for the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico,[19] and denounced U.S. colonialism in these territories.[20]
In 2012, Plaskett challenged nine-term delegateDonna Christian-Christensen in the Democratic Party primary. Plaskett was unsuccessful, receiving 42.49% of the vote to Christian-Christensen's 57.48%.[4]
In 2014, Plaskett ran for the office again, after formally declaring her candidacy in November 2013. In the Democratic primary held on August 2, she faced Shawn-Micheal Malone, a Virgin Islands Senator, and Senate President, and Emmett Hansen, a former Virgin Islands Senator and former chair of theDemocratic Party of the Virgin Islands. She received 50.4% of the vote to Malone's 41.61% and Hansen's 7.92%.[21] She defeated Republican nominee Vince Danet in the general election held on November 4 with over 90% of the vote.[22]
Plaskett was challenged in the Democratic primary by former Virgin Islands Senator Ronald Russell. She defeated Russell with 85.48% of the vote to his 14.04%.[23] In the general election, she faced Republican Gordon Ackley, an Air Force veteran and business owner, who ran as a write-in candidate.[24] She won in a landslide, garnering almost 98% of the vote.[25]
Plaskett won reelection unopposed in both the Democratic primary and the general election.[26]
Plaskett won reelection, defeating independent candidate Shekema George with 88.09% of the vote.[27]
On January 12, 2021, Plaskett was named aHouse impeachment manager for thesecond impeachment trial of Donald Trump in response to thestorming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.[28] During thetrial on February 10, 2021, she was introduced by lead impeachment managerJamie Raskin of Maryland, her former constitutional law professor, who said she was "an 'A' student then and she is an 'A+' student now".[11]
On February 2, 2023, Plaskett was appointed by Minority LeaderHakeem Jeffries as the Ranking Member of theUnited States House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.[29] Plaskett has criticized multiple decisions made by the Republican majority, saying in her opening statement of the select subcommittee's first hearing, "I'm deeply concerned about the use of the select subcommittee as a place to settle scores, showcase conspiracy theories and advance an extreme agenda that risks undermining Americans' faith in our democracy."[30] On March 2, 2023, Plaskett and Judiciary Committee Ranking MemberJerrold Nadler released a staff report titledGOP Witnesses: What Their Disclosures Indicate About The State Of The Republican Investigations, in which they criticized three alleged whistleblowers (George Hill, Garret O’Boyle,[31] and Stephen Friend) who had transcribed interviews with the Select Subcommittee. This document claims that the three have been the only ones who have been transcribed out of "dozens and dozens of whistleblowers" who have had discussions with House Judiciary Republicans. In the 315-page report, Subcommittee Democrats doubt the three whistleblowers' credibility, stating that they are heavily MAGA-biased and had no evidence of actual FBI misconduct.
In 2018, Plaskett received $30,000 in campaign contributions fromJeffrey Epstein, who was at the time her constituent and a known sex offender following a 2008 conviction.[32] Plaskett received criticism in 2019 after Epstein was arrested on July 6, this time indicted for sex-trafficking crimes, and on July 9 she "reversed course" from her previous decision to keep the money. She became the first politician to announce she would give away Epstein's political donations, saying the funds would benefit The Women’s Coalition and The Family Resource Center.[33] In 2023, six Epstein accusers sued Plaskett and other U.S. Virgin Islands officials, alleging that they helped and benefited from Epstein’s sex-trafficking enterprise in the U.S. territory. Their claims were voluntarily dismissed with prejudice.[34][35][36]
In November 2025, newly released documents showed that duringMichael Cohen's February 2019 testimony to theHouse Oversight Committee, Plaskett received and responded to text messages from Epstein before, during, and after her questions. Epstein directed her to question Cohen on Trump's executive assistant,Rhona Graff, and messaged her "Good work" after her questioning concluded.[34] Plaskett responded that Epstein's ownership ofLittle Saint James made him a constituent of the Virgin Islands. A vote tocensure over these texts failed, largely along party lines.[37]
Plaskett is married to Jonathan Buckney Small, a community activist and former professional tennis player.[8] She has five children, four of them with Andre Duffy, her previous husband.[12] She has served on numerous nonprofit boards focused primarily on education, culture, and community development.[9] Plaskett isLutheran.[45][46][47]
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| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Delegate to theU.S. House of Representatives from theVirgin Islands' at-large congressional district 2015–present | Incumbent |
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| Preceded by | United States delegates by seniority 2nd | Succeeded by |
Political officials of theUnited States Virgin Islands | ||
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