FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest Friday of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan on charges of obstruction for her alleged role in helping an illegal alien escape detention last week.
Democratic lawmakers took a break from championing MS-13 associate Kilmar Abrego Garcia to condemn the Trump administration over Dugan’s arrest.
Fresh off threatening foreign nations that cooperate with President Donald Trump, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.) told Axios, “It is remarkable that the Administration would dare to start arresting state court judges.”
Raskin’s use of the plural “judges” suggests he may have also been referring to the Thursday arrest of Jose Cano, a former judge of the Dona Ana County Magistrate Court in New Mexico, who was found allegedly harboring a suspected Tren de Aragua terrorist.
“It’s a whole new descent into government chaos,” added Raskin.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) also found fault — not with those individuals allegedly breaking the law but with the administration enforcing the law.
“The Trump administration again is breaking norms in how it’s dealing with immigration, the legal system, and normalcy,” said Pocan. “This is stuff I expect from Third World countries.”
‘If enough of us act similarly, and strategically, we can stand with our neighbors.’
Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman (Ohio) told Axios, “They arrested a judge?! They can no longer claim to be a party of law and order. This will have to be a red line for congressional Republicans. Unbelievable.”
Ahead of Dugan’s arrest, Wisconsin state Rep. Ryan Clancy stated, “I commend Judge Hannah Dugan’s defense of due process by preventing ICE from shamefully using her courtroom as an ad hoc holding area for deportations.”
“She used her position of power and privilege to protect someone from an agency that has repeatedly, flagrantly abused its own power,” continued Clancy. “If enough of us act similarly, and strategically, we can stand with our neighbors and build a better world.”
‘The Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.’
Patel indicated that Judge Dugan helped Eduardo Flores-Ruiz get away from immigration officials following his pre-trial April 18 appearance in her courtroom.
Flores-Ruiz, an illegal alien from Mexico who was previously deported in 2013, faces three misdemeanor counts of battery. The battery charges reportedly include modifiers for domestic violence and reflect that he allegedly punched one individual 30 times, then brutalized the woman who attempted to intervene.
Bondi noted in an interview Friday that both of Flores-Ruiz’s alleged victims had to be hospitalized.
“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest,” said Patel. “Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”
Flores-Ruiz is now listed as being in ICE custody at Dodge Detention Facility in Juneau, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Brady McCarron, spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, reportedly indicated that Dugan is being charged with two federal felony counts: obstruction and concealing an individual.
‘No one is above the law.’
Chief Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Carl Ashley noted in an email to judges that ICE agents came to the courthouse on April 18 with an arrest warrant and identified themselves to security. They went to the sixth floor, where Dugan’s courtroom is located, and “presented the warrant as well as their identification,” reported the Sentinel.
Bondi told Fox News that when Dugan found out ICE was outside her court room, “She goes out in the hallway, screams at the immigration officers — she’s furious, visibly shaken, upset — sends them off to talk to the chief judge.”
Sources told the Sentinel that while ICE officials went to talk to a chief judge on the sixth floor, Dugan took the illegal alien and his attorney to a side door in the court room, directed them down a private hallway, and into a public area, reported the Sentinel.
Judge Dugan reportedly went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Dries during a brief hearing Friday afternoon and made no public comments. Her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, told the court, “Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi noted on X, “No one is above the law.”
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Accessory, Illegal alien, Illegal immigration, Ice, Deportation, Hannah dugan, Democrats, Leftism, Immigration and customs enforcement, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Politics
