Left: Alina Habba, then-attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during a recess at Manhattan criminal court, Monday, April 22, 2024, in New York (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool). Right: Newark mayor and gubernatorial candidate Ras Baraka speaks during a protest in front of Delaney Hall, the proposed site of an immigrant detention center, in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, March 11, 2025 (AP Photo/Seth Wenig).
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has sued acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba, alleging his constitutional rights were violated and that she defamed him after he was arrested at an ICE facility last month.
Baraka’s 17-page lawsuit filed Tuesday also names as a defendant Ricky Patel, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge of the Newark division. The Democratic mayor accuses Patel and Habba of violating his Fourth Amendment rights because of the “false arrest” and the “malicious prosecution” that followed.
On May 9, three New Jersey U.S. House representatives arrived at Delaney Hall, a newly-opened ICE facility in Newark operated by GEO Group, a private prison company. The public officials said they wanted to inspect the facility, and Baraka was invited to join them.
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According to the mayor, a member of the GEO Group invited him inside, but about 40 minutes later, Patel approached him and asked him to leave, which Baraka argues he promptly did. He was shortly after arrested on trespassing charges.
The incident further ignited tension between the two major political parties, with Baraka and the three members of Congress — which included Rep. LaMonica McIver, who was later charged with assault — being Democrats.
The mayor also sued Habba for defamation, alleging she “made false and defamatory” statements about him, “despite Habba’s actual knowledge and reckless disregard of facts demonstrating his innocence.”
In his filing in the U.S. District Court in Newark, Baraka included a screenshot of a social media post from Habba, in which she wrote that he “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself” — as well as quotes from a Fox News interview she gave later that night.
The post also said: “He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state.”
Though Habba, a former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, later dropped the charges against Baraka, citing a desire of “moving forward,” the Newark mayor alleges she acted with political goals in mind.
“Defendant Habba made these statements with actual malice and intended them to harm Mayor Baraka’s reputation, damage him politically, and serve Defendant Habba’s personal and political interests,” Baraka wrote. As part of his argument, the mayor, who is running to be New Jersey’s next governor, pointed to her stated desire this year to “turn New Jersey red” — meaning to have Republicans in control of the state. Habba “acted as a political operative” instead of representing the law impartially, Baraka argues.
His lawsuit also cited Magistrate Judge André Espinosa’s criticism of the U.S. attorney’s office in its “hasty” arrest of Baraka, with the judge chiding, “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 upholding the law.”
Habba appeared to see Baraka’s lawsuit coming, writing on Monday night that there was a “‘shocking’ leak” coming from his team that he was “planning to sue the Feds.”
“My advice to the mayor — feel free to join me in prioritizing violent crime and public safety. Far better use of time for the great citizens of New Jersey,” she added.
Baraka is seeking financial damages for “pain, suffering, stress, humiliation, mental anguish, emotional harm and personal physical injury and physical sickness, as well as damage to his reputation.”
