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The FBI on Friday arrested a Milwaukee decide accused of serving to a person evade immigration authorities, escalating a conflict between the Trump administration and the judiciary over the Republican president’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
FBI Director Kash Patel introduced on social media the arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court docket Decide Hannah Dugan, who he mentioned “deliberately misdirected” federal brokers away from a person they have been attempting to take into custody at her courthouse final week.
“Fortunately our brokers chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, however the Decide’s obstruction created elevated hazard to the general public,” Patel wrote.
Dugan was taken into custody by the FBI on Friday morning on the courthouse grounds, in accordance with U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson Brady McCarron. She appeared briefly in federal court docket in Milwaukee later Friday earlier than being launched from custody. Her subsequent court docket look is Might 15.
“Decide Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made within the curiosity of public security,” her legal professional, Craig Mastantuono, mentioned throughout the listening to. He declined to remark to an Related Press reporter following her court docket look.
Dugan is charged with “concealing a person to forestall his discovery and arrest” and obstructing or impeding a continuing. She’s accused of escorting the person, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, and his lawyer out of the courtroom via the jury door on April 18 as a approach to assist avert his arrest, in accordance with an FBI affidavit filed in court docket.
The affidavit means that Dugan was alerted to the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers within the courthouse by her clerk, who was knowledgeable by an legal professional that they seemed to be within the hallway.
The affidavit describes Dugan as “visibly offended” over the arrival of immigration brokers within the courthouse and says that she pronounced the state of affairs “absurd” earlier than leaving the bench and retreating to her chambers. It says she and one other decide later approached members of the arrest staff contained in the courthouse, displaying what witnesses described as a “confrontational, offended demeanor.”
She requested one of many officers if they’d a judicial warrant and was advised that the warrant was as an alternative administrative. After a back-and-forth over the warrant, the affidavit says, she demanded that the arrest staff converse with the chief decide and led them away from the courtroom.
After directing the arrest staff to the chief decide’s workplace, investigators say Dugan returned to the courtroom was and was heard saying phrases to the impact of “wait, include me” earlier than ushering Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer via a jury door right into a private space of the courthouse. The motion was uncommon, the affidavit says, as a result of “solely deputies, juries, court docket employees, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies used the again jury door. Protection attorneys and defendants who weren’t in custody by no means used the jury door.”
Dugan’s arrest comes amid a rising feud between the Trump administration and the judiciary over the president’s govt actions on immigration and different issues. Trump administration officers have sharply criticized what they’ve described as “activist” judges they are saying declare have overstepped their authority and unfairly impinged on the president’s govt powers by blocking lots of his efforts.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who represents Wisconsin, referred to as the arrest of a sitting decide a “gravely critical and drastic transfer” that “threatens to breach” the separation of energy between the manager and judicial branches.
“Make no mistake, we don’t have kings on this nation and we’re a Democracy ruled by legal guidelines that everybody should abide by,” Baldwin mentioned in an emailed assertion. “By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court docket orders, and arresting a sitting decide, this President is placing these primary Democratic values that Wisconsinites maintain pricey on the road.”
The case is much like one introduced throughout the first Trump administration towards a Massachusetts decide, who was accused of serving to a person sneak out a again door of a courthouse to evade a ready immigration enforcement agent.
That prosecution sparked outrage from many within the authorized group, who slammed the case as politically motivated. Prosecutors dropped the case towards Newton District Decide Shelley Joseph in 2022 beneath the Democratic Biden administration after she agreed to refer herself to a state company that investigates allegations of misconduct by members of the bench.
The Justice Division had beforehand signaled that it was going to crack down on native officers who thwart federal immigration efforts.
The division in January ordered prosecutors to examine for potential legal expenses any state and native officers who impede or impede federal features. As potential avenues for prosecution, a memo cited a conspiracy offense in addition to a regulation prohibiting the harboring of individuals within the nation illegally.
“Nobody is above the regulation,” Legal professional Common Pam Bondi mentioned in a social media publish Friday.
Dugan was elected in 2016 to the county court docket Department 31. She additionally has served within the court docket’s probate and civil divisions, in accordance with her judicial candidate biography.
Earlier than being elected to public workplace, Dugan practiced at Authorized Motion of Wisconsin and the Authorized Support Society. She graduated from the College of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981 with a bachelor of arts diploma and earned her Juris Doctorate in 1987 from the varsity.
