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In May, the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested by federal agents outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and accused of trespassing. The charge against Ras Baraka was later dropped, but a new bodycam video is shedding light on what led to that arrest.
The video, which was made public Monday as part of the Justice Department’s case against another official present at that protest, Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., shows a federal agent telling fellow officers that the decision to arrest Baraka was “per the deputy attorney general of the United States,” who is Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer. While giving that order, the agent also directed the officers to turn off their bodycams.
On Tuesday’s “Deadline: White House,” MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said the agent’s comments would “live forever as a stain on this country.”
“People talk about being numb or not being shocked anymore,” Wallace said. “This is shocking to me: The deputy attorney general of the United States is on the phone with law enforcement, not just talking about an arrest, but stagecrafting it?”
She added: “Now we are learning just how central Todd Blanche is to the Department of Justice’s targeting of Democratic lawmakers.”
Wallace said she immediately thought about how such a scene would be received on the world stage.
“I’m increasingly aware of how the world sees us,” she said. “And this story, which is all captured on tape, is about law enforcement officers on the phone with the second-most powerful law enforcement official in the United States of America, saying, ‘Turn off your bodycams. We’re walking out of the gates and arresting him, per the deputy attorney general.’”
The “Deadline: White House” host said “some of the most brazen conduct” from the administration has come from Blanche, citing his recent prison interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, during which the convicted sex offender and Jeffrey Epstein associate. She also pointed to Blanche’s contention that anti-Trump protesters could be prosecuted on racketeering charges.
Wallace said the deputy AG’s actions are part of a larger effort from the Trump administration: “In just eight months, Donald Trump’s top deputies at the Department of Justice have abandoned any pretense of being there to uphold the rule of law.”
You can watch Wallace’s full analysis in the clip at the top of the page.