When the acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, dropped all charges against Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of New Jersey’s Newark, it might’ve seemed as if the legal dispute were over. It was not.
On the contrary, a few weeks after the incident that sparked the dropped criminal case, the tables have turned, and Baraka is now suing Habba. The New York Times reported:
[Baraka] filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday against Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, that argues that his arrest was motivated by political malice, not justice. The lawsuit also names Ricky Patel, a supervising agent with Homeland Security Investigations who led the arrest of Mr. Baraka on May 9 outside a 1,000-bed detention center near Newark Liberty International Airport that has become a flashpoint in President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Baraka’s civil suit, which accuses federal authorities of false arrest and malicious prosecution, also accuses Habba of defamation.
For those who might benefit from a refresher, it was nearly a month ago when a group of Democratic officials, including three members of Congress, visited Delaney Hall, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in New Jersey. The point, according to the officials, was to conduct oversight, which is a core congressional responsibility.
Things did not go well, however, at Delaney Hall. There was a chaotic scene involving protesters, lawmakers and Trump administration officials, culminating in Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of New Jersey’s Newark, getting arrested and being charged with trespassing.
Habba — a former Donald Trump lawyer whom the president tapped to lead a U.S. attorney’s office, despite her lack of qualifications — claimed the mayor “ignored multiple warnings” to “remove himself from the ICE detention center.” Baraka, however, soon after told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, “After they finally told us to leave, and I told them I was leaving, they came outside the gate and arrested me. So it looked like it was targeted.”
Habba announced a few days after the arrest that her office had agreed to drop the charges against the Newark mayor. But before the case was dismissed altogether, the federal judge to whom the case was assigned took the opportunity to scold Habba’s office for its handling of the matter.
Indeed, federal magistrate judge André Espinosa reprimanded the federal prosecutors for several minutes, calling the decision to abandon the charges “embarrassing.”
“The hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, followed swiftly by the dismissal of these trespassing charges a mere 13 days later, suggests a worrying misstep by your office,” Espinosa said. “An arrest, particularly of a public figure, is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action, carrying significant reputational and personal consequences, and it should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate evaluation of credible evidence.” The mayor was soon after overheard saying, in reference to the judicial admonishment, “Jesus, he tore these people a new a–hole. Good grief.” That was two weeks ago. Now, Baraka is taking the next step, suing the U.S. attorney who oversaw his short-lived and ill-fated prosecution. Baraka, it’s worth noting for context, is also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Primary Day in the Garden State is seven days away. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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