The Milwaukee judge, Hannah Dugan, was arrested for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade arrest, the FBI director says.
The FBI arrested a Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, circuit judge for allegedly assisting an illegal immigrant in evading arrest, confirmed top officials with the Trump administration on Friday.
Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested on obstruction charges, Patel
confirmed in a post on X on Friday. The FBI made the arrest “after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week,” he added
“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flore- Ruiz, allowing the subject—an illegal alien—to evade arrest,” the FBI director said.
Patel said that Flores-Ruiz is also in federal custody but added that the judge’s alleged “obstruction created increased danger to the public.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi later
confirmed on social media that Dugan was arrested for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade U.S. Immigration and Enforcement (ICE) officials. Other details about the alleged incident were not provided by either Patel or Bondi.
Court records detailing Dugan’s arrest
show that she was charged with obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency of the United States and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.
An Associated Press reporter
said that Dugan appeared in a federal court hearing on Friday, and she was released from custody.
A lawyer for Dugan, Craig Mastantuono, said during the court hearing that the judge “wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,” according to the AP reporter.
In the court filing that was unsealed Friday, it included an affidavit from a FBI special agent who provided more details about the incident. When federal immigration agents traveled to the Milwaukee County Courthouse with an arrest warrant to detain Flores-Ruiz earlier this month, at one point, Dugan escorted the man through a jury door to allegedly avoid being arrested
“Despite having been advised of the administrative warrant for the arrest of Flores-Ruiz, Judge Dugan then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the ‘jury door,’ which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse,” the FBI special agent said, adding that the scenario was “unusual.”
Later, Flores-Ruiz escaped the courthouse and was arrested by federal agents “after a foot chase,” the affidavit said.
Dugan has been a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge since 2016 and typically oversees misdemeanor cases, according to the
court’s website and her LinkedIn
page. She ran for reelection unopposed for the Branch 31 division in 2022, and her current term is scheduled to end in August 2028.
The Trump administration has said it would investigate and prosecute local officials who refuse to comply with federal immigration efforts.
Days after President Donald Trump took office in January, the Department of Justice (DOJ)
sent a memo ordering federal prosecutors to investigate local or state officials who allegedly are obstructing efforts to detain or arrest illegal immigrants.
That memo had warned that the DOJ could prosecute local officials
under a law that prohibits conspiracy to commit an offense against or defraud the federal government, which carries a prison term of up to five years for each count.
Top administration officials
have also said they would withhold funding to states that don’t adhere to the government’s immigration-related policies.
Dugan’s arrest comes after a former New Mexico judge and his wife
were arrested on Thursday after prosecutors alleged they allowed an illegal immigrant and Tren de Aragua gang member to live on their property.
The Epoch Times has contacted the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, and an email account associated with Dugan for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
