Alina Habba Gonna Lock Up A Congresswoman Now
For doing her oversight job!
Welp, five months into this Trumpian dystopia, and almost a decade after Dear Leader first started leading his cult in chants of LOCK HER UP, we have reached the LOCK UP POLITICAL OPPONENTS stage of our national decline.
Alina Habba, the seemingly surgically enhanced parking-garage lawyer cum (acting) US attorney for New Jersey now says she is gonna FEDERAL CRIME CHARGE Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver with having “assaulted, impeded and interfered with law enforcement” in that ICE-agent mosh pit at the New Jersey Delaney Hall detention facility on May 9, though Habba says she will also drop charges for Newark mayor Ras Baraka. Here is the criminal complaint, and let’s get into how Habba’s letter and the complaint are at odds with reality!
First Habba’s letter, which she annoyingly posted as a screenshot on X with no alt text.
Allow us to transcribe.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM U.S. ATTORNEY ALINA HABBA
I take my obligations as a U.S. attorney seriously. I understand the responsibility that comes with my position, and I will work diligently to uphold the law and deliver justice to the people of New Jersey.
After extensive consideration, we have agreed to dismiss Mayor Baraka’s misdemeanor charge of trespass for the sake of moving forward.
In the spirit of public interest, I have invited the mayor to tour Delaney Hall. The government has nothing to hide in this facility, and I will personally accompany the mayor so he can see that firsthand.
Gotta stop her right there, the mayor was not trespassing in the facility. Which she seems to admit in dropping those charges. The building is run by a private, for-profit prison company called GEO Group, which is getting paid one billion taxpayer dollars. Like any other business in Newark, health and safety officials are obligated to inspect it and make sure it’s up to code for its purpose, in this case, warehousing humans. And in spite of surely having nothing to hide, the facility had been denying access to officials for months. It finally let health and safety inspectors in the door just yesterday. And the mayor had reason to be concerned, as immigrants in ICE facilities have been dying in custody from a lack of medical care, and there have been reports from all over of horrors like ankle-deep sewage backups in cells and food shortages.
Moving on with this letter,
The citizens of New Jersey deserve unified leadership so we can get to work to keep our state safe.
The dismissal against the mayor is not the end of this matter.
Congressional oversight is an important Constitutional function and one that I fully support.
Good to hear you say so, glad we agree!
However, that is not at issue in this case.
Whert? Congresswoman McIver, along with Reps Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, were there to do exactly that: oversee, congressionally. They had every right to enter the facility and investigate. The facility even escorted them into the locked front gate, but then officials apparently changed their minds between there and the front door, then surrounded them and started shoving them out.
Back to Habba:
Representative LaMonica McIver assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 111(a)(1). That conduct cannot be overlooked by the chief federal law enforcement official in the State of New Jersey, and it is my Constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties.
Let’s roll the tape!
First, marvel at the mental gymnastics of DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin trying to convince CNN's Victory Blackwell and everybody else to ignore their own eyes and ears.
Why, there is other video! Turns out some ICE agents DID have their body cameras turned on, which happens to be against the guidance ICE released in February to turn them off. And what do you know, that footage has been released and is very obviously edited to frame it like McIver is punching and unprovoked when she gives a shoulder push to the thug in front of her, but does not show how she being moshed all over by the gang and getting railroaded from behind by a short little shit in a khaki baseball hat and backpack, or the agent in a camo gaiter grabbing and pulling her arm, which some people might also say was assault.
OWWW MOMMM SHE HIT ME!
Compare the videos, where McIver is obviously being pushed and shoved, to the stills in the complaint.
The congresspeople did not start the mosh pit, and no one here should have been pushing and shoving at all, because, again, the congresspeople had every right to enter the facility in the first place.
Back to Habba’s letter,
I have persistently made efforts to address these issues without bringing criminal charges and have given Representative McIver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined.
UM what the fuck does THAT mean, what would such a resolution be? That is not how one deals with a crime.
“The mugger beat the living shit out of me and body-slammed me on concrete like Hulk Hogan, but I tried to seek a resolution without calling the police.” Did Habba and/or Pam Jo Bondi proffer some kind of threats/extortion/bribe here? Please, some reporter with a backbone, ask her to explain.
No one is above the law – politicians or otherwise.
I can think of ONE 34-time felon client of yours who is! Hey, what happened to all that money he owes New York and E. Jean Carroll after you lost those cases for him?
And we can think of a law for politicians, it is Article I, Section 6, Clause 1 of the Constitution, the Speech or Debate one, which specifically gives immunity to members of Congress from liability for actions like investigations and oversight that are taken up in the course of their legislative duties. Such as this exact scenario!
Hey, remember that time a grand jury in Georgia wanted to subpoena Lindsey Graham to testify about why he was calling up Georgia elections officials to just ask questions on behalf of a certain 2020 loser, and Linds was all WAH, HELP ME SUPREME COURT! SPEECH AND DEBATE CLAUSE!
Those were the days.
Finally, concludes Habba,
It is the job of this office to uphold justice impartially, regardless of who you are. Now we will let the justice system work.
They are just LOVING shoving the hypocrisy in everybody’s face.
Of course this stage of authoritarianism has been a long-time gleam in Dear Leader’s eye. And of course the first who might get locked up for real is an urban Black lady, because urban Black lady prosecutors and politicians have been the ones first in the breach to kick the felon president and his friends right in the gooch, from fraud in New York to RICO vote stealing in Fulton County, Georgia.
Of course no jury of reasonable people is going to vote to lock up McIver for this. Even getting an indictment, as ham sandwich easy as it may be, would be shocking. But that is not the point! As Weaponization Czar of the Weaponization Working Group Ed Martin recently explained: “If they can be charged, we’ll charge them. But if they can’t be charged, we will name them. And we will name them, and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed. And that’s a fact. That’s the way things work. And so that’s, that’s how I believe the job operates.”
At least they’re going to be transparent about it, we guess.
[ABC / Washington Post archive link]
And here’s another constituzhonal skolar:
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1924831221814636632?s=61&t=d57_wdu2mp3jUpQgi28A5Q
HASSAN: What is habeas corpus?
NOEM: Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country
HASSAN: That's incorrect
Ruben Gallego can kiss my ass (letter to my Senator).
"Republicans are allowing judges to be arrested and charged. They are now arresting and charging sitting members of Congress. They are allowing illegal mass renditions. They are pushing forward with a bill that will raise the taxes of the poorest Americans in favor of the richest. And you are happily helping them pass legislation. This is the beginning of an authoritarian nightmare, can you not see that?
You ran as a representative of the people, as an alternative to Kyrsten Sinema's hypocrisy. You haven't been in office for 6 months and you've already sold yourself out to the crypto cult. Most of your constituents don't have the luxury of being able to invest in crypto, we're busy just trying to buy a little food, see a doctor once in a while, and live our lives in peace. Do we matter?"