A federal judge found former city Comptroller Brad Lander not guilty of obstructing an elevator bank inside 26 Federal Plaza during a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement inside the building amid a wave of immigrant arrests there last year.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Ricardo issued the verdict on Thursday in a Lower Manhattan courtroom, the morning after a daylong bench trial.
“I simply find on the facts, the government has failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. The charge could have carried a fine or up to 30 days in prison or both. (Lander’s legal team said the government had earlier indicated it didn’t intend to seek jail time.)
At issue was a narrow question of whether Lander, who is currently challenging Rep. Dan Goldman, a fellow Democrat, for his seat in the 10th District, “unreasonably obstructed the usual use” of the 10th floor elevator bank and elevators, and whether he did so “willfully and knowingly” when he joined other lawmakers for a protest inside the building on Sept. 18.
Lander took part in a sit in at 26 Federal Plaza before being arrested, Sept. 18, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/The City Reporte
Lander had billed the trial as a chance to call out ICE’s operations inside holding cells on the 10th floor, where conditions had deteriorated, becoming filthy and overcrowded as ICE arrests surged last spring.
Instead, the daylong trial amounted to a tedious examination of the font size on government signs, how elevator buttons work and whether a particular car of the building’s many elevators opened during the course of the estimated 30 minutes that Lander was sitting in front of it.
After the verdict, Lander said the trial had amounted to a waste of prosecutorial resources.
“They could have dropped the charges on Monday, right? They could have dropped them last week, they could have dropped them months ago,” he said. “I didn’t choose to be prosecuted.”
A court observer tries to comfort a woman who was detained by federal agents after her immigration hearing inside 26 Federal Plaza, Aug. 7, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
“They’re trying to intimidate people into not participating as part of that court-watching, ICE watching movement,” he said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment on the verdict and didn’t immediately respond to Lander’s remarks.
Heated Primary Election Issue
The trial comes in the final days of a heated primary contest for New York’s 10th Congressional District, which includes Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.
Both Lander and Goldman have boasted about their bona fides combating ICE. Goldman derided Lander on X, criticizing his challenger for fundraising off the arrest and trial.
“While Brad never did get the information he sought from ICE, I have all of that information from my weekly oversight visits and would be happy to brief him,” he said in a statement, referring to unannounced inspections members of Congress can make of ICE facilities after filing suit for access.
Lander was arrested on Sept. 18 along with 10 other elected officials as they demanded to inspect ICE holding cells on the 10th floor. At the time, a federal judge had already stepped in and dramatically limited capacity for the holding cells.
Federal prosecutors offered a deal to the lawmakers and Lander, agreeing to drop the charges if they avoided arrest inside 26 Federal Plaza for six months.
The other ten elected officials, all members of the state Assembly and Senate who would be working in Albany for the remainder of the year, took the deal, attorneys said at the time. Lander refused.
Five witnesses were called at the trial, including a member of the Federal Protective Service who arrested Lander, the General Services Administration’s manager overseeing 26 Federal Plaza, a legal intern who reviewed videos of the protest, State Sen. Julia Salazar, who was arrested alongside Lander — and Lander himself.
Lander testified his goal was not to block the elevator, but to inspect the 10th floor holding cells, and that he would have moved if someone had tried to leave the elevator he was sitting in front of.
While members of Congress are supposed to be allowed to inspect ICE holding areas and detention cells unannounced under federal law, the same authority is not extended to local officials like Lander and the state legislators who were demanding access to the cells that day.
Democratic Congressional candidate Brad Lander speaks outside Manhattan Federal Court after a judge acquitted him on charges of obstructing an elevator during a sit it at 26 Federal Plaza, June 11, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/The City Reporte
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ariel Cohen had just one question for Lander during cross examination, showing him a picture of him sitting in front of the elevator, and asking if it was him.
“Yes,” Lander replied. “No further questions,” Cohen said.
In her closing remarks, Cohen brought up a video of Lander singing “we shall not be moved” while sitting in front of the elevator. “He stayed seated and repeatedly chanted, ‘We shall not be moved,’” she said. “Mr. Lander had no intention of moving voluntarily.”
Lander’s attorney, Deirdre von Dornum, dismissed this as a traditional civil rights era protest song, not a testament to Lander’s determination to block an elevator.
“Mr. Lander is here because he believes strongly in the right to protest and the right to protest ICE,” she said. “The fact is, he was moved.”
Explaining his verdict on Thursday, Judge Ricardo agreed, finding the government hadn’t proved anyone even tried to leave the elevator, and thus hadn’t shown beyond a reasonable doubt that Lander’s conduct amounted to obstructing the usual use of the elevators.
“He would have moved out of the way if he had been asked to do so,” Ricardo said.
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