Brad Lander tears up after judge finds him not guilty in NYC ICE arrest episode

Brad Lander shed a tear Thursday after a judge cleared the congressional hopeful of a low-level charge of “unreasonably” blocking an elevator during a protest last year at a federal immigration detention center in Manhattan.

“I’m genuinely moved by the rule of law,” the 56-year-old former city comptroller told reporters as he choked up outside Manhattan federal court, clad in a gray suit and New York Knicks cap that still had a sticker on the brim.

“What a blessing to live in a country where if the government arrests you and charges you with something, you can count on the ability to go in and make the government prove its case,” added the gleeful pol.

The display of emotion came after an unusual Manhattan federal court trial over a petty “violation” — the legal equivalent of a parking ticket — where a judge ruled that Lander was not obstructing anyone from his seat in front of the elevator at 26 Federal Plaza.

Lander, testifying in his own defense, said he was merely sitting down as a harmless protest to demand access to the holding cells on the building’s 10th floor, which human rights advocates have decried as “inhumane” and decrepit.

“Of course I would have moved to let someone off the elevator,” he told the judge.

The failed mayoral candidate — who is leading in the polls as he angles to unseat Rep. Dan Goldman and represent swaths of Lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn in Congress — added that no one tried to enter or exit the elevator behind him while he was seated there.

“The elevator nearest me did not ding or open at that time,” he said. Plus, anyone “able bodied” would have easily been able to step over him even if the door had opened, he maintained.

Federal prosecutor Ariel Cohen insisted during the one-day trial that Lander created an “unsafe and disruptive situation” in the building by making “egress in and out of the elevator more difficult.”

When given a chance to cross-examine Lander, Cohen asked only one question: whether Lander was, in fact, the person pictured sitting outside the elevator bank in a blue and orange suit at that time, which he confirmed.

Lander technically faced up to 30 days in jail if convicted, but prosecutors had promised not to push for any jail time. No ICE agent testified during the trial.

Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton was nominated later in the day by President Trump to replace Tulsi Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence.

“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.”