Brad Lander, New York’s former comptroller and a Congressional hopeful, appeared in court for a bench trial Wednesday in his September arrest while protesting conditions at an immigration holding facility.
Deliberations wrapped Wednesday evening and court will resume Thursday morning with the verdict, according to Lander’s campaign spokesperson, Emily Minster.
Lander had been 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 ICE 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 in December to misdemeanor charges related to the intended inspection.
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 a Wednesday morning news 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.”
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.
Lander was arrested and accused of “assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer,” DHS said in a social media post after the arrest.
“It is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment,” the post said. “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”
Shortly after his release in the incident, Lander denied assaulting law enforcement.
Since his arrest in September, Lander, whose term as comptroller ended Jan. 1, has announced a run for Congress. He is hoping to represent New York’s 10th Congressional District.
Most recently, he 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 wasn’t immediately clear how he would watch Game 4 of the Finals on Wednesday night.
NBC News has reached out to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — a close colleague of Lander’s — for comment.
