Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the state of New Jersey, faced a crowd of protesters outside a federal courthouse where Newark Mayor Ras Baraka made his first court appearance after federal agents arrested him for trespassing outside an immigration detention center last week.
Habba, Donald Trump’s personal attorney, was surrounded by a chorus of boos and chants of “shame” as she walked up the courthouse steps on Thursday.
Baraka was arrested outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Elizabeth on May 9 as the mayor and members of Congress demanded answers from the administration about the conditions inside, marking a major escalation of immigration protests surrounding the facility.
Videos from a chaotic scene of his arrest showed masked federal officers pushing against demonstrators and a group of House Democrats from New Jersey before Baraka was placed in handcuffs.
Baraka was initially asked to leave a gated area of the facility, but agents came out to arrest him after he left. Federal officers can be seen shoving protesters and grabbing Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver past the fence into the facility as Baraka is moved towards the detention center. Agents appeared to swarm him and others as they blocked protesters from the fence.
Speaking outside the federal courthouse in Newark on Thursday after a brief appearance in front of a judge, Baraka called the charges “petty” and “silly” and accused the Department of Justice of selective prosecution,
“We believe I was targeted in this,” he told supporters. “I was the only person arrested, I was the only person identified, I was the only person they put in a cell.”
The case against him is “wrong, it is unjust, it is undemocratic, it is unpatriotic, it is un-American,” Baraka said.
Habba and Trump administration officials have accused Baraka of trespassing and unlawfully barging into the facility, which the mayor has flatly denied.
He released a video following the incident that he says shows him being “invited” past the detention center’s gates before his arrest, contradicting the government’s narrative that pushed past the gates without permission.
“While the charges are unwarranted, we will fight this,” he said in a statement Thursday. “Grateful to everyone who showed up in support. This is bigger than me. It’s about all of us.”
Baraka did not enter a plea on Thursday, and his lawyers intend to file a motion to dismiss the case, citing lack of jurisdiction and selective prosecution for what they argue is a politically motivated retribution for his opposition to the ICE facility and Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.
In court filings, Habba labeled the charges against him a “petty offense” — but the Justice Department does not appear ready to back down.
Administration officials have also suggested they are considering criminal charges against three members of Congress — including McIver and Reps. Robert Menendez Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman — who were caught up in the brawl with federal agents.
The three lawmakers and administration officials have both accused each other of committing assault.
They “body slammed, body rammed, pushed, shoved, whatever you want to call it, it was assault,” Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News.
In remarks after Baraka’s arrest, McIver said she and Watson Coleman were “assaulted,” and Menendez Jr. was “roughed up” after what was supposed to be an “oversight visit” to the facility. Menendez called what happened to McIver an “assault.”
Habba, a Trump loyalist who represented the president in his civil fraud case and defamation lawsuits from E. Jean Carroll, was appointed by the president to serve as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor on March 25.
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