On Friday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X that the FBI had arrested a state judge in Wisconsin, allegedly over her efforts to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents out of her courtroom while she was adjudicating a case involving an immigrant they were targeting.
Patel bragged about the arrest on social media, then deleted the post, which claimed there was evidence of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan “obstructing an immigration arrest operation” on April 18.
“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be,” Patel wrote.
The U.S. Marshals office confirmed the arrest shortly after Patel published the post. Dugan later appeared before a U.S. District Court judge, where she was charged by federal officials with two felonies relating to obstructing or impeding an arrest, and concealing an individual to prevent an arrest.
Dugan’s arrest is the first publicly known example of the Trump administration arresting a local official for allegedly obstructing its immigration policies, The Washington Post reported. The arrest came after right-wing media in Wisconsin sensationalized Dugan’s actions earlier this week.
Legal experts speaking to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel were split on whether Dugan will actually be convicted. According to sources who witnessed her actions, ICE agents sought an individual who was the subject of a court hearing Dugan was presiding over. Dugan told those agents to stay in another judge’s office while she finished the proceeding. When the hearing concluded, she directed the individual to use a side door instead of the main exit, without informing the ICE agents. The agents eventually detained the individual.
Some legal experts have justified Dugan’s actions, saying they may be viewed as a reasonable effort “to protect the integrity of the courtroom,” the Journal Sentinel reported.
“No one should jump at the assumption” that Dugan’s actions amounted to obstruction, Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School and a former federal prosecutor, told the publication.
Dugan “shouldn’t have to be concerned that the courtroom will be, for all intents and purposes, a trap for people who are doing their legitimate business there,” former federal prosecutor Franklyn Gimbel said.
On social media, several other legal experts decried Patel’s arrest of Dugan, noting that it marked an escalation of the Trump administration’s attacks on the judiciary, including at local levels.
“They are arresting judges now, ramping up a campaign of intimidation against the judicial branch,” opined Don Moynihan, political science professor at University of Michigan.
“The clash between executive and judicial branches just exploded,” said Frank Figliuzzi, national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News.
“Awful. Horrible,” wrote civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill. “I don’t know if this judge did anything wrong. But I can say that if this Admin insists on disappearing migrants to foreign gulags in violation of court orders, more & more ppl will feel compelled to thwart ICE.”
“Milwaukee’s Judge Hannah Dugan is accused of helping an undocumented immigrant evade ICE by not turning her courtroom into a trap. This isn’t justice. It’s a warning shot: obey, or get cuffed,” podcaster Brian Allen said.
Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin), whose district encompasses Milwaukee, issued a statement regarding Dugan’s arrest.
“This administration’s willingness to weaponize federal law enforcement is shocking, and this arrest has all the hallmarks of overreach,” Moore said.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) also condemned the arrest.
The “arresting [of] a sitting judge is a gravely serious and drastic move,” Baldwin said, noting that the action “threatens to breach” the separations of governmental power.
“We do not have kings in this country,” Baldwin went on, adding that, “by attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders and arresting a sitting judge,” Trump is “putting basic democratic values…on the line.”
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