Trump says Oakland mayor committed ‘obstruction of justice’
President Trump on Thursday suggested the mayor of Oakland, Calif., was guilty of obstruction of justice for her role in tipping off immigrants in the country illegally to an upcoming federal immigration raid.
“How about the mayor of Oakland, where she tells a thousand people to ‘get going, law enforcement’s coming to get you.’ And this was all planned. And many of them scattered,” Trump said during a roundtable discussion on tax reform.
“To me that’s obstruction of justice, and something should happen there. And it hasn’t and I don’t know why it hasn’t,” Trump added.
Pres. Trump says Oakland mayor guilty of “obstruction of justice” for warning of raid by federal deportation officers last month.
“Something should happen there. And it hasn’t and I don’t know why it hasn’t.” pic.twitter.com/u1ltDn2aJE
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 5, 2018
The president has previously called Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (D) a “disgrace” for warning residents of a planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation.
According to ICE, Schaaf’s warning prevented the agency from capturing nearly 800 immigrants considered to be “public safety threats.”
In his March announcement of a Justice Department lawsuit against the state for its so-called sanctuary policies, which allow local law enforcement to not comply with federal immigration officials, Attorney General Jeff Sessions also panned the move as reckless.
“How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical open borders agenda,” Sessions said.
Schaaf has expressed no regret for her email to residents instructing them to “prepare, not panic” for the raid.
“I continue to feel confident that what I did was the right thing and it was legal,” Schaaf said at a press conference in February.
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