Brad Lander is set to stand trial in a federal courthouse in the city starting Wednesday over an arrest in September that occurred while the then-New York City comptroller was protesting conditions at an immigration holding facility.
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He was arrested alongside 75 others, including nearly a dozen other elected officials, at 26 Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan, as they attempted to inspect rooms holding detained immigrants in the building, which is also home to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and the FBI’s New York field office.
The inspections came after a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that the Department of Homeland Security and ICE had to improve conditions for immigrants being held in the city.
Lander pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges in December related to the intended inspection.
“I pleaded not guilty because we were not guilty of any crime,” he said at a news conference ahead of the start of his trial Wednesday. “The crime is what Ice is doing, and we have pursued our case to trial asking for more information.”
Lander requested to proceed to trial over the charges, saying in a November statement that he did so because “I believe the crime is not what I did, but what is happening on the other side of the tenth-floor door.”
“ICE agents are abducting our neighbors and trying to hide what is happening from the public, and we’re not letting up,” he said. “By requesting to proceed to trial, in the same way ICE and DHS can ask me what I was doing in the hallway, I will have the opportunity to question the officers about what they were doing on the tenth floor in that detention facility on that day.”
At the Wednesday morning press conference outside the courthouse, Lander said his team will call three witnesses in relation to their case.
“It is important to keep standing up and fighting back,” Lander said. “That’s what tens of thousands of people around the country are doing today.”
He added: “What’s most important is that we keep showing up and bearing witness.”
“Let’s be clear: the crime was not what we were doing at 26 Federal Plaza. The crime is what ICE is doing there,” Lander said in a social media statement Wednesday morning. “We must stand up fearlessly against Trump & his rogue ICE agents to protect our immigrant neighbors and the rule of law. That’s what I was doing when I was arrested, and that’s what I’m doing today.”
Lander was also taken into custody last June in connection with an incident at a federal courthouse in New York while he was running for mayor. At the time, he said he and his wife were there serving as advocates for defendants in immigration court.
At the time, DHS said Lander had been arrested and accused of “assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.”
The agency said in a social media post at the time that “It is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment. No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”
Lander denied assaulting law enforcement shortly after he was released following the June incident.
Since his arrest in September, Lander has announced a run for Congress and is hoping to represent New York’s 10th Congressional District.
Most recently, the New Yorker hosted a watch party in Park Slope, Brooklyn, for Game 2 of the NBA Finals, in which the Knicks are facing the San Antonio Spurs.
Pictures on social media show him standing on a table in the Brooklyn bar to celebrate the Knicks going up 2-0 against the Spurs. It is not yet clear how Lander will watch Game 4 of the Finals on Wednesday night or whether he will be in attendance at Madison Square Garden.
NBC News has reached out to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — a close colleague of Lander’s — for comment.
