What happened
A federal judge in New Jersey Wednesday approved interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba's request to drop trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, then spent several minutes criticizing her office's "hasty arrest" and "embarrassing retraction of charges." Baraka was arrested during a May 9 surprise visit to a migrant detention facility with three House Democrats from New Jersey.
Who said what
Baraka's arrest "suggests a worrisome misstep by your office," U.S. Magistrate Judge André Espinosa told Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Demanovich. "An arrest, particularly of a public figure, is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action" that "should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate evaluation of credible evidence" and never "to advance political agendas." The "reprimands did not go unnoticed," the New Jersey Globe said, quoting Baraka commenting into a hot mic: "Jesus, he tore these people a new a--hole."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It is "highly unusual for the Justice Department to charge a sitting member of Congress with crimes outside of fraud or corruption," The Washington Post said. But the Trump administration has "decimated units responsible for prosecuting white-collar and public corruption cases," The New York Times, and "blurred, and at times obliterated, the line between personal score-settling and running a country."
What next?
Habba did not attend the Baraka hearing but did call into McIver's virtual initial court appearance a few hours earlier, where a different magistrate judge released McIver on her own recognizance. Her next court appearance is June 11. She faces up to eight years in prison for each of the two charges.
-
10 great advent calendars for everyone (including the dog)The Week Recommends Countdown with cocktails, jams and Legos
-
How could worsening consumer sentiment affect the economy?Today’s Big Question Sentiment dropped this month to a near-record low
-
‘America today isn’t just looking to overcome’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump pardons 2020 fake electors, other GOP alliesSpeed Read The president pardoned Rudy Giuliani and more who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss
-
Supreme Court to decide on mail-in ballot limitsSpeed Read The court will determine whether states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day
-
Democrats split as Senate votes to end shutdownSpeed Read The proposed deal does not extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, the Democrats’ main demand
-
USDA orders states to ‘undo’ full SNAP paymentsSpeed Read The Trump administration is telling states not to pay full November food stamp benefits
-
Senate takes first step to end record shutdownSpeed Read Eight senators in the Democratic caucus voted with Republicans to advance legislation to reopen the government
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
