So he was “just following orders”?

I can think of another group of people who attempted to use that argument in the 1940’s.

The federal officer who arrested the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city outside an immigration detention center in May suggested that he was making the arrest at the direction of the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Todd Blanche, according to law enforcement body camera footage described in a new court filing.

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According to McIver’s attorneys, a Department of Homeland Security special agent was on the phone as the events unfolded that day. Citing bodycam footage they obtained in the case, the attorneys wrote that the special agent, after hanging up the call, turned to a group of fellow agents and announced: “We are arresting the mayor right now, per the deputy attorney general of the United States. Anyone that gets in our way, I need you guys to give me a perimeter so I can cuff him.”

POLITICO has not reviewed the bodycam video. Although the footage was submitted as an exhibit in the case, it was not yet publicly available. A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment, and a response from the Department of Homeland Security did not address whether Blanche had ordered the agents to make the arrest.

The special agent’s apparent suggestion that he was acting at Blanche’s direction is the latest sign that top Justice Department officials are harnessing the power of law enforcement against Democrats and other perceived enemies of President Donald Trump. Trump’s DOJ has opened investigations into various figures Trump disdains, including Jack Smith, James Comey, former Homeland Security aides who criticized him and many others.

Federal law enforcement officials have also detained New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and handcuffed California Sen. Alex Padilla.

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