Alina Habba Back in Trouble for (Allegedly) Lying While Lawyering
One reason — I laid out a week ago — I was interested in the ways that Trump’s DOJ keeps getting caught in false claims, is because they create, “the possibility that these prosecutions will backfire, not just by creating sympathetic political martyrs, but also by further exposing [Pam] Bondi and her top aides as liars violating legal ethics.”
Which Ras Baraka is attempting to facilitate by suing Alina Habba for false arrest and malicious prosecution.
There are several key details about the lawsuit that might sustain it beyond what would normally be prosecutorial immunity, at least far enough to get discovery (discovery that might also sink the prosecution against LaMonica McIver).
First, Baraka showed that even before she was sworn in, Habba made clear that she would abuse the office for political gain.
13. Days before being sworn in, Habba announced on Fox News that she would be “investigating” New Jersey’s Democratic Governor and his appointed Attorney General, claiming New Jersey’s lawful Immigrant Trust Directive is thwarting Trump’s immigration policies. Habba claimed that New Jersey’s Governor and Attorney General were interfering with her effort to take “all criminals out of the country” — apparently except for her former client, convicted felon Donald Trump.
Along with including all the other false claims made about Baraka (an interview Habba did with Fox, a CNN interview DHS propagandist Tricia McLaughlin did, as well as false claims in the arrest affidavit), he included the tweet that Habba sent from her personal Xitter account even before Baraka was charged.
And he described the exceptional efforts to exacerbate Baraka’s arrest, not just by arresting him rather than citing him, but by subjecting him twice to fingerprinting and a mugshot.
One thing Baraka doesn’t mention, however, is the imminent primary for New Jersey’s gubernatorial race. He Baraka was well behind in polls before his arrest, but he will be able to make a plausible claim that the arrest harmed his chances — all the more so given that Pam Bondi’s own DOJ dismissed the charges against Eric Adams precisely because of the damage it would allegedly do to him in the upcoming primary.
As Liz Dye noted on Bluesky, Baraka is represented by the same lawyer, Nancy Smith, who forced Habba into a settlement on behalf of a Bedminster staffer whom Habba tricked into a hush payment in conjunction with being sexuallly harassed. She knows Habba’s tricks well.
As one might stereotypically expect from a NJ Mayor, Baraka does not f around. Getting Nancy Smith to represent him is a Sopranos-like move.
“Hi, Alina! Remember me?”
Getting inside your opponent’s head is *always* a good place to start your attack.
Philadelphia DA issues warning…‘F around and find out’
“Anybody who thinks it’s time to play militia, F around and find out,” Krasner said on Monday night, just hours before tens of thousands of Philadelphians flock to the polls.
“Anybody who thinks it’s time to insult, to deride, to mistreat, to threaten people, F around and find out,” he continued.
https://nypost.com/2024/11/05/us-news/philadelphia-da-issues-warning-against-election-interference-f-around-and-find-out/
Great comment, Peter! Love it.
It is almost as though TACO’s minions think that if they perform their corrupt acts out in the open then their acts are no longer corrupt.
They are extremely arrogant, strutting. So far they have gotten away with hundreds of serious criminal actions, including treason, and it looks like they will continue to do so. They’re gettin’ cocky(er). Interesting Times.
OT: Although the Homeland Security stooges who entered the NYC constituent office of Rep. Nader were uniformed & probably actually official, wouldn’t a signed warrant be required to go uninvited into the interior office? Much more to worry/question but this first.
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Sorry, in the midst of going other work, got on line rapidly to ask this question. I looked it elsewhere: yes.
I have no idea how to check browser auto cache but I will be more attentive in the future.
“TACO’s minions”
I prefer my tacos with minced onions.
NACHO* Habba dabba due process will rise to the occasion of her parking garage history.
*Not A Competent Helm Official
“Wil-maaaaaaaaa!”
So from the video I saw, Baraka’s charges will be dropped pretty quickly. Habba’s just helping.
What I’ve been wondering is, how are unlawful arrests en masse of protesters going to be handled. That moment is coming sooner than later.
I was arrested numerous times during Occupy. Mostly for “incommoding the sidewalk”. All of my charges were dropped. In DC I was part of a suit against DC Metro who arrested a group of us at the behest of DHS (represented by the amazing Jeffery Light who is also a badass at getting FOIA requests) and we all got 5000.00 for being illegally arrested.
One arrest in NYC however got me taken to the pokey all the way up in the Bronx from downtown because I refused the retinal scan. It took the OWS legal defense team three days to find me and get me out on a hefty bail for the charge. It was resisting the retinal scan that got me in trouble. NYC shares that biometric data with FBI/DHS since 9/11 I think. That too was dismissed but with a lot more court appearances which was a pain as I was based with DC.
I know folks who were seriously injured. One OWS guy who came down to DC had his arm broken by NYPD. I don’t want to talk riot porn here but if you were on the ground with an Occupation there’s a pretty good chance you have PTSD.
Maybe I’m wrong, but these show arrests are going to go nowhere. And when flash bangs, rubber bullets and police use military hardware as happened during Occupy, not only will people be seriously injured, the arrests I think will still all be mostly dismissed and it will garner public support for protests as we also saw with the Gaza protests on campus across the country.
I absolutely believe Trump has overplayed his hand with perp walking Judge Hannah Dugan, Baraka’s arrest and threats to arrest members of Congress. DAs and USAs who go hard, and illegally, in arresting folks is just gonna blow back in their faces and there will be plenty of payouts for false arrests and physical harm.
The charges were already dropped. That’s what makes the malicious prosecution a viable complaint.
At some point, losing repeated trials because of a malicious prosecution defense will come back to bite people personally, as this would make a bar complaint that much easier to support. “How many malicious prosecutions does it take to realize this person has no business being a lawyer?”
Dah, will NOT come back to bite people personally?
“New York Bar Council addresses complaint about [Bove]”, turns it over to DOJ for disciplinary action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtI451hz01A
Additionally, “Attorney General Pam Bondi’s brother, Bradley Bondi, and a top deputy to Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for D.C., are vying for leadership roles at the D.C. Bar Association.”
Replying to xyxyxyxy
(a) The NY Bar Council is abdicating their responsibility, then. They can make a referral to the DOJ for flat-out illegal activity, but it is the Bar Association that has responsibility for evaluating the credentials of everyone who wants to practice as an attorney in the state of New York, not the responsibility of the DOJ.
(b) Brad Bondi wanting to be head of the DC bar association is evidence of what I was saying in (a). Bar Association leadership matters, especially when it comes to holding lawyers accountable. Also, note please that he is only a candidate for this post, and his candidacy has gotten a lot of pushback. He may want the job, but it’s not his yet.
See this from NPR for more.
I’m not yet convinced we have the full story on the Bar referral.
“Maybe I’m wrong, but these show arrests are going to go nowhere.”
Your first thought was right. These perp arrests have already gone a lot of places. One of them is to vet, hire, and train his masked goons, and to make their violence normal.
On the other hand, the community response to some of these arrests have turned the HSI/ICE folks into the perps – something they never contemplated, and now forms their worst nightmares.
I’m not on Shitter and I try to choke down some MAGA propaganda to see what’s going on on Earth 2, but although Fox ate up Dugan’s arrest, there seemed a lot more focus on it and how problematic it is for days on the left punditry which I hope seeps out into the public as a problem.
Officers stopped wearing badges or identifying insignia during Occupy and masked goons have been reported on for awhile. I think the public at this point accepts this, but doesn’t normalize it. Yet.
Hopefully an all hands on deck effort to counter the willful destruction of what was formally the world’s superpower for the
Past 80 years will coalesce this summer and truly push back with the knowledge of how law enforcement has evolved to intimidate and unable to be held accountable.
That’s what we’re gonna face now, not beat cops with badges and bear spray.
I’m not trying to be pessimistic but realistic that we’re gonna need to learn how to do more than pour Malox mix into people’s eyes. I just think courage and the refusal to be intimidated by this militarization of law enforcement actually is really meaningful in resisting it.
The Beast lives on fear. I hope we take some joy and inspiration from Ukraine’s pluckyness, resolve and resilience.
“Vet, hire & train his masked goons”, it’s in-service training for unconstitutional crimes? On the fly, though, I doubt there is a training manual to FOIA. Do the masked thugs work on-call for bounty so no one’s spending the budget on uniforms, insignia or training? How many masked kidnappers are pardoned J6ers?
No need to wonder how unlawful arrests will be handled.
They just won’t be as they’re too big a hassle.
Videos
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000007174941/philadelphia-tear-gas-george-floyd-protests.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHvG1LvAL0Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5NL6UZEIlo
If Paul Weiss or any of the other kneepads law firms wants to repent, serving as co-counsel in this case would be the way to do it. Not that they will repent.
Gnypads, Whimperer, and Toedy, LLP — Offering a Wide Range of Services
Is it not startling that Baraka’s lawyers didn’t include the election-interference aspect? It speaks both to the defendants’ motives and duplicity. Is it because they don’t want to give Habba/Patel an opening to claim he was performing a political stunt? Whatever the case, good catch, Marcy. Can’t wait for the first post-arrest poll of the Gov race.
And damn good for Baraka for doing this. Trump’s evil, real-world version of the Keystone Cops were in over their heads from the get-go, and they are drowning in a strong wave of legal actions, their incompetence and perfidy being common threads throughout the gamut of them.
I should have put it, “post dismissal of charges and exhoneration poll,” as that’s where he began to build steam, culminating in the lawsuit yesterday. There were a few polls immediately after the arrest and they were all over the place, but the wingnuts in charge were filling the decibel range with the libels that Baraka’s suit enumerates, and it doesn’t look like there will be any polling before the poll that actually means something on the 10th, anyway.
If the people of NJ want to spit in Trump’s face (just before his birthday no less), putting Baraka on the November ballot would fit that bill succinctly.
Mayor Baraka’s also on very solid legal ground for being there in the first place, because the facility was a privately run prison with already-existing complaints about the conditions. As Mayor, he has a duty to investigate private facilities in similar situations, it’s called code enforcement. I would expect a jury to understand that point. Likewise McIver with Congressional oversight.
It was reported that Dan Goldman ran off some ICE agents trying to get some arrests at court by reminding them of the actual laws. He also made a pretty solid point, which is that these ICE goons always seem to be masked, in an attempt to avoid later prosecution for misconduct. As noted by Goldman who was a prosecutor that worked with DHS and ICE plainclothes in the past, they were never masked then but they are now.
As noted in the post, Habba was sued by a (IIRC) Bedminster employee for fraud because she tried to pretend she was working for the employee while actually working for Convict-1 / Krasnov. There doesn’t seem to be many scruples for her, and she had to pay damages for her antics.
There is a reason the DoJ manual didn’t include pretrial character assassination, because it routinely backfires, just ask Durham. However, with this crew allegation = conviction (if it’s a D). Even if it makes it to trial, I can’t see a jury convicting McIver, et al.
McIver was charged with a felony via criminal complaint, which constitutionally requires a grand jury to indict. Habba had 30 days from the court filing to get a grand jury truebill on the charges or it’s dismissed with prejudice.
Someone who is brown and poor and who was convicted of a crime but pardoned or better yet, have an expungement, and who can’t remain in the US due to Trump admin “no criminal policy” or unable to enter the US needs to sue the Trump admin on the basis that the US currently has a POTUS who is an unpardoned convicted white rich felon.
Make the hypocrisy the centerpiece of the lawsuit and get media all over the story.
Where is Gloria Allred these days?