Newark Mayor Sues New Jersey's Top Federal Prosecutor After Arrest at Immigration Detention Site

TIME

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sued New Jersey's top federal prosecutor on Tuesday over his arrest on a trespassing charge at a federal immigration detention facility, saying the Trump-appointed attorney had pursued the case out of political spite.

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00:00My firm filed a lawsuit in federal district court on behalf of North Mayor Raz Baraka

00:06against Alina Haba, the interim United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and

00:12Ricky Patel, the head of investigations for the Department of Homeland Security, individually.

00:20The complaint charges that Haba and Patel, acting outside their authority as government

00:26officials, violated Mayor Baraka's constitutional rights by falsely arresting him and maliciously

00:33prosecuting him for events that took place at Delaney Hall in Newark on May 9th.

00:39I just want to say this is not about revenge or not about me going after individuals because

00:47I think they've wronged me specifically, ultimately I think this is about them taking accountability

00:54for what has happened to me.

00:56When people see me in cups, they automatically believe I did something wrong, I was guilty,

01:01you know, that I deserved to be in jail, that they caught me finally, that all this other

01:04kind of stuff, foolishness.

01:06And the reality is, I didn't do anything.

01:08I went down there for a press conference.

01:10I was invited inside of a gate.

01:12People approached me.

01:13They were very loud and abusive to me.

01:16I left the gate, finally, after they told me to get out.

01:19I walked out of the gate.

01:20They allowed me to walk out of the gate.

01:22I walked out of the gate, they made a decision to change their mind based on a call or whomever

01:27they got it from.

01:28And they ran out of the gate and arrested me there, right?

01:31And threw a couple of the witnesses or bystanders on the ground in the process.

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