Immediately after being charged and released from jail for storming an ICE detention center in New Jersey, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka jumped on CNN to play the victim and to accuse U.S. Attorney Alina Habba of lying. You can read more about that here.
CNN’s Kaitlin Collins asked Baraka to explain his side of the story, to which the mayor insisted that he “didn’t do anything wrong.” She asked him if they received warnings from law enforcement before he was arrested.
“Well, absolutely not, well, I mean, we could, we could, the reality is that Alina Habba wasn't there,” Baraka said. “The U.S. attorney wasn't there. 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 over an hour, not a single person, not an officer from ICE, not any of the security guards. Nobody told me to leave that place.”
The Democratic mayor accused Homeland Security of escalating the situation unnecessarily and that he, acting in his official role as mayor, did not break any laws. Barak insisted he was there legally to support members of Congress and attend a press conference, and criticized someone for spreading misinformation about his actions.
“Somebody from Homeland Security came in the end and began to escalate the situation, and we wound up being where we are today, and that's frankly the extent of it. I didn't go there to break any laws; I didn't break any laws. I was there as the Mayor of the City, exercising my right and duty as an elected official, supporting our Congress people, preparing for a press conference that was supposed to happen there. I did not enter that place unlawfully, I did not break any laws so she was not there, so she should get some better information,” he continued.
The mayor also claimed that no one asked him to leave or issued any warnings during the hour he spent at the ICE facility.
However, the footage of the incident tells a different story.
In the video, a Homeland Security agent clearly tells Baraka to leave and notes that several prior warnings had already been issued.