Final month, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for becoming a member of protestors exterior a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in New Jersey. The case in opposition to Baraka was dropped pretty rapidly, however the mayor has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the U.S Lawyer who filed the fees.
AP Information stories Baraka’s lawsuit in opposition to New Jersey’s interim U.S Lawyer Alina Habba seeks damages for “false arrest and malicious prosecution.” Habba was President Trump’s private legal professional and was appointed to the AG place in March. Ricky Patel, the Homeland Safety Investigations agent in cost in Newark, was additionally named within the go well with. Baraka is presently campaigning in a packed major race to turn out to be the Democratic nominee for New Jersey governor and the fees had been filed as early voting begins forward of the June 6 major.
From AP Information:
The episode exterior the Delaney Corridor federal immigration detention middle has had dramatic fallout. It started on Could 9 when Baraka tried to affix three Democratic members of Congress — Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver and Bonnie Watson Coleman — who went to the power for an oversight tour, one thing licensed below federal regulation. Baraka, an outspoken critic of Trump’s immigration crackdown and the detention middle, was denied entry.
Video from the occasion confirmed him strolling from the power aspect of the fence to the road aspect, the place different folks had been protesting, after which uniformed officers got here to arrest him. As they did, folks might be heard within the video saying to guard the mayor. The video exhibits a crowd forming and pushing as officers led off a handcuffed Baraka.
Habba initially charged Baraka with trespass to justify the arrest, however rapidly moved to dismiss the fees, which resulted within the decide who was overseeing the preliminary prices throwing a big quantity of shade at Habba, issuing an unusually robust rebuke.
“Your position is to not safe convictions in any respect prices, nor to fulfill public clamor, nor to advance political agendas,” Decide André M. Espinosa, mentioned in court docket paperwork. “An arrest, significantly of a public determine, will not be a preliminary investigative software…it’s a extreme motion, carrying important reputational and private penalties, and it ought to solely be undertaken after a radical and dispassionate analysis of credible proof.”
Name me a cynic, however I don’t assume anybody within the Trump administration is able to any motion that might be labeled “thorough” and “dispassionate.”
In the present day I filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to Alina Habba and DHS Agent Ricky Patel for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and defamation. They abused their energy to violently arrest me at Delaney Corridor regardless of being invited insid
. Nobody is above the regulation.
— Ras J. Baraka (@rasjbaraka) June 3, 2025
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“This isn’t about revenge,” Baraka mentioned throughout a information convention saying the fees. “Finally, it’s about them taking accountability for what they did.”
For her half, Habba has been dismissive of Baraka’s authorized motion. “My recommendation to the mayor-feel free to affix me in prioritizing violent crime and public security. Much better use of time for the good residents of New Jersey,” she wrote on X (previously often known as Twitter). It’s really insane that she’s shifting with this vitality regardless of having been completely learn for filth by a federal decide over her dealing with of this case.
Whereas his arrest on the protest thrust Baraka into the nationwide highlight, this was not his first time standing in opposition to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration insurance policies. Baraka filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Florida-based Geo Group Inc., which owns Delaney Corridor, after they struck a 15-year contract valued at $1 billion with the Trump administration to offer detention services for ICE.
We will’t say for sure that the arrest and prices in opposition to Baraka had been retaliatory for his ongoing battle in opposition to the administration’s immigration coverage, however it wouldn’t be off-brand for Trump. In April, a federal decide blocked an government order issued by the president that may’ve crippled one of many regulation companies who represented shoppers that filed instances in opposition to Trump.
It’s loopy how everybody within the Trump orbit is so involved concerning the rule of regulation till it involves the Greenback Retailer authoritarian they’re working for.
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