Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, N.J., invited Alina Habba to the city for a tour, a day before she was sworn in as a federal prosecutor for the Garden State Friday.
“I’d be happy to give you a tour of Newark — a beautiful, thriving and diverse community built by working people with pride,” he wrote in a Thursday post on social platform X, accompanied by a video.
“No MS-13 here, just resilience, culture and progress,” he added, referring to a gang organization that has been in the headlines amid the Trump administration’s crack down on illegal immigration.
Habba, a staunch defender of President Trump and White House counsel, was tapped to serve as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey earlier this week. She previously represented Trump in high-stakes cases such as the New York civil fraud trial and the defamation and sexual assault lawsuits brought against him by author E. Jean Carroll.
She was officially sworn into office by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday afternoon. Before the ceremony, Trump commended his former counselor for spearheading efforts to “defeat the corrupt and grotesque weaponization of our justice system.”
“She’ll be as good as it gets,” he said.
In his video online, Baraka pleaded with Habba to venture out of the “beautiful country clubs” of Bedminster, N.J. and visit Newark.
“Come hang out with us here in the city,” he continued. “So you can learn about our community, our town, see beautiful working-class people and some, which are immigrants, who are doing the outstanding job of making this one of the best cities in the state of New Jersey.”
He went on to share recent accomplishments of the city, including a reduction in homicides and shootings, citing a relationship with federal partners — including the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of Justice and U.S. attorneys on both sides of the aisle.
The Democratic mayor, who is running for New Jersey governor, added that his invitation was intended to foster a relationship with Habba, not to merely push Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda in the city. He pressed the newly minted prosecutor to meet with local law enforcement officials to “see the incredible work” the staff is doing each day.
“We don’t need that disrupted. We don’t need that upended. We don’t need it undermined by political cheerleading,” he added. “What we need is leadership and a continuation of what we’ve been doing in this city.”
Habba has not yet responded to the invitation.
