A Democratic New Jersey mayor was caught making a vulgar comment about a Trump official as the criminal charges against him were dropped.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka faced a court appearance, where US Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa criticized federal prosecutors for accusing him of trespassing at an ICE facility. The incident occurred earlier in the month.
Alina Habba, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer who currently holds the position of interim US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, asserted that Baraka had disregarded warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to vacate the premises.
Baraka, who is not only the mayor but also a candidate for New Jersey governor, contended that he had been invited to the facility for oversight purposes. In a surprising turn of events, Habba announced last week that her office would be dropping the charges against Baraka, providing no reasoning for the decision.
For five full minutes on Wednesday, Espinosa reamed out the US Attorney’s Office for what he said was a ‘hasty’ decision to charge a public official, the New Jersey Globe reports.
Once he was done with his rant, Baraka could be heard on a hot mic, saying: ‘Jesus, he tore these people a new a**hole. Good grief.’
The judge directed his comments at Assistant US Attorney Stephen Demanovich – who he said acted appropriately throughout the case, but was responsible for hearing his message as a representative of the US Attorney’s Office.
‘An arrest of a public figure is not a preliminary investigative tool,’ he said at the virtual court hearing. ‘It should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate investigation of credible evidence.’
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was heard making a vulgar comment about a Trump official when he was caught on a hot mic Wednesday
Interim US Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba, who previously served as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and is now an advisor to the president, charged Baraka with trespassing earlier this month – but then announced her office was dropping the charges against him less than two weeks later
‘Federal prosecutors serve a single paramount client: justice itself,’ Espinosa continued.
‘Your role is not to secure convictions at all costs nor to satisfy public clamor, nor to advance political agendas. Your allegiance is to the impartial application of the law, to the pursuit of truth and to the upholding of due process for all.’
But, Espinosa said, that did not happen in Baraka’s case.
‘The apparent rush in this case, culminating today in the embarrassing retraction of charges, suggests a failure to adequately investigate,’ he claimed, telling Demanovich: ‘Your office must operate with a higher standard than that.’
The Assistant US Attorney, though, insisted that his office had conducted a thorough investigation and said prosecutors simply decided to dismiss the case in an effort to ‘move forward.
‘I do hear your message, and again, it’s the endeavor and the goal of the office at all times, to uphold justice and to reach the right result in this case,’ he told the judge.
Demanovich then added that dismissing the case ‘was the most appropriate resolution in the interest of justice,’ without addressing Espinosa’s repeated demands to explain how prosecutors could have been fully prepared to take Baraka to trial last week, only to later drop the charges, the Washington Post reports.
US Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa reamed out the US Attorney’s Office at a virtual hearing on Wednesday – directing his comments to its representative, Stephen Demanovich
Meanwhile, in a separate courtroom, Rep. LaMonica McIver appeared via web cam to face two assault charges relating to the May 9 protest at which Baraka was apprehended by ICE and Homeland Security officers.
The two politicians were at Delaney Hall on the outskirts of Newark amid protests of its reopening as a migrant detention center.
It is located close to the airport, making it easy to ship migrants back to their native countries, and has previously been used as a jail and a halfway house.
But the building had not been used in over a year, and the City of Newark claimed its owners, GEO Group, did not receive permits or a valid certificate of occupancy to house 1,000 migrants a day.
Dramatic footage from the protest on May 9 showed frantic people scrambling outside the gates of the facility, before Baraka was arrested and escorted away by police.
Officers were also seen shoving protesters out of the way amid the chaos, and McIver claimed she and her colleagues were assaulted by ICE officers.
Baraka was apprehended by ICE and Homeland Security officers at a protest on May 9
Congresswoman LaMonica McIver (circled in red) got into a heated clash with law enforcement officers outside Newark ICE center Delaney Hall as he was apprehended
Yet video from the scene showed the congresswoman pushing and aggressively shoving at least one law enforcement officer guarding the gates to the detention facility.
She was also seen chasing after the agents who had arrested Baraka and encouraging the crowd to ‘Surround the mayor.’
At one point it appeared that McIver’s elbow made contact with an officer.
The criminal complaint against her now says she ‘slammed her forearm into the body of… a uniformed [Homeland Security Investigations] agent’ and later ‘reached out and tried to restrain [the agent] by forcibly grabbing him,’ according to the New York Post.
McIver has denied the claims as she described the charges against her as being ‘purely political.’
‘They mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,’ she said in a statement.
‘Our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation.’
McIver has denied the claims as she described the charges against her as being ‘purely political’
The congresswoman went on to refuse to accept a plea deal that prosecutors offered her to resolve the case before it ended up in court.
‘The Justice Department and Alina Habba wanted me to admit to doing something that I did not do, and I was not going to do that,’ she told CNN on Tuesday.
‘I came here to do my job and conduct an oversight visit and they wanted me to say something differently and I’m not doing that.’
Habba has thus far defended her decision to bring charges against the Democrat congresswoman
But Habba has thus far defended her decision to bring charges against the Democrat congresswoman.
‘This has nothing to do with congressional oversight and it has nothing to do with politics. It’s about respecting those who risk their lives to keep us safe,’ she told the New York Post.
At the hearing on Wednesday, McIver declined to enter a plea and was released on her own recognizance.
If convicted on the two assault charges, she could face up to eight years in prison.
