Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller running in a Democratic congressional primary this month, was found not guilty on Thursday of charges related to his arrest last year inside a federal building in Lower Manhattan.
He was one of 11 Democratic elected officials arrested in September at the city’s main immigration courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza, four months after he had been taken into custody at the same building in a separate incident in June.
Mr. Lander’s arrest in September drew less notice than the one in June, which called significant attention to his ill-fated mayoral campaign and helped raise his national profile. Mr. Lander also got a boost recently from his political alliance with Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York.
Mr. Lander, who was the comptroller at the time of both arrests, was not charged with a crime in relation to the June incident. But he was charged in Federal District Court in Manhattan after his arrest in September, with obstructing the usual use of the building’s elevator lobby. He was found not guilty on Thursday by a magistrate judge, Henry Ricardo, after a one-day bench trial.
In a statement after the verdict, Mr. Lander said that he felt “genuinely moved today by the rule of law,” which offers protections that he said many detained immigrants do not enjoy.
“It’s a blessing we don’t always appreciate, and one that is being utterly denied to our immigrant neighbors by Trump and ICE,” said Mr. Lander. “All we want at 26 Federal Plaza is for everybody facing removal proceedings by our government to have the same access to the rule of law as I had in this trial.”
In addition to Mr. Lander, the elected officials arrested in September included Jumaane D. Williams, the public advocate, and a number of state lawmakers. The other officials chose not to pursue a bench trial, and received an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, which resolves charges without a conviction, said Emily Minster, a spokeswoman for Mr. Lander.
Mr. Lander’s arrest in June was captured on video by reporters at 26 Federal Plaza. Footage of him being pushed against a wall and handcuffed by federal agents spread widely online and in the news media.
At the time, he had been trying to escort a migrant, whom the agents were seeking to arrest, through at the courthouse. He later told reporters that he felt like he had failed because the man had been detained.
The federal building at 26 Federal Plaza, which is home to an ICE headquarters and one of the city’s three immigration courts, has become a focal point of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
A significant number of immigrants have been arrested there after they showed up for routine hearings, and many have been held at a small detention facility on the building’s 10th floor that rights groups have said is frequently overcrowded and unsafe.
Mr. Lander and the other officials were arrested while attempting to visit that detention area. Several months later, two Democratic lawmakers, Representatives Daniel Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, were permitted to visit the facility. They said it was clean and orderly, but believed it had been made to look that way in preparation for their visit.
Mr. Lander is currently challenging Mr. Goldman in a highly competitive Democratic congressional primary, in a district that includes Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.
He was endorsed last December by Mr. Mamdani, whom Mr. Goldman had declined to back in either the Democratic mayoral primary or the general election. Polling data in the race is scant, but what information does exist suggests he enjoys a sizable lead in the race.
On Thursday, Mr. Goldman accused Mr. Lander of “going back to court after rejecting a dismissal to have a trial all about himself” and called the situation “a performative, self-promoting case that helps no one in the immigrant communities in the district.”
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