Newark Mayor’s Stunned Reaction to Courtroom Rebuke Caught on Hot Mic: ‘Tore These People a New A**hole’

(Cover Images via AP Images)

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s stunned reaction to a federal judge excoriating the U.S. Attorney’s Office for its handling of charges against him was caught on a hot mic Wednesday as he joked they’d been torn a “new asshole!”

The courtroom drama unfolded Wednesday during a virtual hearing, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa blasted prosecutors for what he called a “hasty” and politically fraught decision to charge Baraka over his presence at a reopened ICE detention facility earlier this month.

“This arrest should only have happened after a thorough, dispassionate investigation,” Espinosa declared, adding: “An arrest of a public figure is not a preliminary investigative tool.”

Baraka, a Democrat who is running for New Jersey governor, had been charged with trespassing during a protest at the Delaney Hall facility. Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, a former personal attorney to President Donald Trump and now one of his top legal allies, authorized the charges, only to drop them abruptly last week with no explanation.

In court, Espinosa openly questioned how prosecutors had moved so quickly to indict a sitting mayor and then just as swiftly abandoned the case. Addressing Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Demanovich, he said the decision “suggests a failure to adequately investigate.”

When the judge finished his remarks, Baraka was heard muttering on a hot mic: “Jesus, he tore these people a new asshole. Good grief.”

Demanovich maintained the investigation was sound and said dismissing the case was “the most appropriate resolution in the interest of justice.” But he offered no clear rationale for the about-face, despite Espinosa’s repeated calls for transparency.

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