Can Alina Habba adhere to a 'higher standard'?
By: Charles Stile
Political Stile
USA Today Network
..... In the calm of a virtual hearing away from the television cameras and protesters and the masked federal agents on May 21, [2025] U.S. Magistrate Judge Andre M. Espinosa delivered a scathing denunciation of the swaggering, made-for-right-wing media crime-fighting style of interim United States Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba.
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"An arrest of pubic figure is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action," Espinosa told Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Demanovich during a virtual court hearing, where he granted Habba's request to suddenly dismiss charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who is also a candidate for governor.
..... An arrest "should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate investigations of credible evidence," Espinosa said.
..... After vowing to prosecute the case against Baraka for allegedly trespassing at the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark that the Trump administration hopes to turn into a hub for deported immigrants, Habba's office announced this week [05/19/2025] that it was dropping the charges - without explanation. And none was given at the May 21 [2025] hearing.
..... Espinosa concluded that there was nothing dispassionat4e about the office's conduct.
..... Instead of a slow, plodding horse building a sensitive case against a democratically elected official, we got a show horse.
..... "The apparent rush in this case, culminating today [05/21/2025] in the embarrassing retraction of charges, suggests a failure to adequately investigate," Espinosa continued. "Your office must operate with a higher standard than that."
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Don't expect Habba to reverse course and suddenly adhere to Espinosa's "higher standard," which just happens to be the standard of professional conduct that has guided federal officers for generations. Habba is operating by the Trump standard of retaliation and grievance. This is a punch-now, worry-about-the-consequences-later school of justice. Tough-talking and telegenic, the Summit-raised Habba is not wielding power at the Peter Rodino building in Newark as an impartial crime fighter, impartially following the facts.
..... She has arrived in her home state - at least for a couple more months, anyways - carrying out trump's from of justice, which includes aggressive prosecution of big-city liberal Democrats for purported trespassing or a member of Congress, Representative LaMaonica, McIver, for allegedly assaulting federal officers in a scuffle as they moved in to arrest Baraka in the May 9 [2025] incident.
..... This circus comes after the U.S. Attorney's Office came under embarrassing scrutiny during former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez's recent corruption trial. Federal authorities charged Menendez of trying to pressure Habba's predecessor, Phil Sellinger, to go easy on developer friend Fred Daibes in a bank fraud case. If there was an office where the public deserves reassurance of a steady, impartial hand, it;s this one.
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But with Habba, we have a crime fighter who doubles as a political operative, boasting to a pod-caster that she believed that the Republicans could "turn New Jersey red," and putting Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh on notice that she has his administration in her sights, but without specifying why. And she is not above crossing a "red line," as some Democrats described it, of arresting a member of Congress for something other than corruption charges.
..... Despite the judge's scolding remarks and the quick disposition of the Baraka charges, the circus will go on. McIver, who had her own hearing May 21 [2025] on two felony charges, could face up to 16 years in prison under a worst-case scenario.
..... "She was shoving federal agents. She was out of control. The days of that crap are over in this country," Trump said. "We're gonna have law and order."
..... Charges against the two other members of Congress, Representatives Bonnie Watson Colman and Rob Menendez, who joined McIver for an oversight tour of Delaney Hall and found themselves in the scum with federal agents outside the facility, may also be in the offing.
Democrats rally around McIver
..... Democrats rallied behind McIver, saying he arrests of elected officials are the stuff of authoritarian banana republic. U.S. Frank Pallone, D-Monmouth, said the incident offered a glimpse of what life is like :living under a fascist regime."
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The episode has turned the little-known first-term congresswoman into a national media star and will certainly boost her fundraising. It is also boosting Habba's profile in Trump's world.
..... As an interim appointee, she is here for 120 days. She has not been appointed, and it's unlikely that New Jersey's two Democratic U.S. senators, Andy Kim and Cory Booker, would support her if Trump did nominate her for the post. It's also unlikely that that state's Distinct Court judges will vote to keep her in that position after her term expires. So she's making the most of her time here within a short distance form the New York media market.
..... In the May 21 [2025] hearing, Espinosa told Demanovich: "Your role is not to secure conviction 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 the upholding of due process for all."
..... Dismissing the case, Demanovich responded, "Was the most appropriated resolutions in the inters of justice."
..... Interest of Trump justice, that is.