Mayor Fires Back at Alina Habba’s Description of His Arrest: ‘Get Some Better Information’
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka pushed back Friday against statements made by interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba regarding his arrest at an ICE detention facility in New Jersey.
Baraka, a Democrat and current gubernatorial candidate, was arrested earlier in the day during a protest at Delaney Hall, a detention center in Newark. The mayor had joined lawmakers and community members opposing the facility’s reopening.
Later Friday, Baraka appeared on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins and rejected Habba’s claim that he ignored multiple warnings to vacate the premises.
Collins noted Habba was President Donald Trump’s personal attorney before she was tapped for a Justice Department position.
“The way she puts what happened today is, she is accusing you of ignoring multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove yourself and says that you chose to quote disregard the law,” Collins said of Habba. “Is that true? Had there been warnings? What had happened?”
Baraka replied, “Well, absolutely not. I mean, the reality is Alina Habba wasn’t there.”He continued:
She doesn’t know what happened. Clearly, that is not the context of what happened. I was there for over an hour in that space, and nobody ever told me to move. I was in there for an hour. Not a single person, not an officer from ICE, not any of the security guards. Nobody told me to leave that place. Somebody from Homeland Security came in the end and began to escalate the situation, and we wind up being where we are today. And that’s, frankly, the extent of it.
Baraka said he did not break the law and said of Habba, “So she was not there, so she should get some better information.”
In an X post about Baraka’s arrest, Habba wrote, “The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
Watch above via CNN.
