FBI arrests US judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities

Milwaukee: The FBI has arrested a Milwaukee judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities, escalating a clash between the Trump administration and local authorities over the Republican president’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is accused of escorting the man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door last week after learning that immigration authorities were seeking his arrest. The man was taken into custody outside the courthouse after agents chased him on foot.

Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee in a photo from 2016.Credit: AP

The judge’s arrest on Friday, Milwaukee time, dramatically escalates tensions between federal authorities and state and local officials, whom US President Donald Trump’s administration has accused of interfering with his immigration enforcement priorities. It also comes amid a growing battle between the government and the federal judiciary over the president’s executive actions over deportations and other matters.

Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, in a statement on the arrest, accused the Trump administration of repeatedly using “dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level”.

“I have deep respect for the rule of law, our nation’s judiciary, the importance of judges making decisions impartially without fear or favour, and the efforts of law enforcement to hold people accountable if they commit a crime,” Evers said. “I will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law.”

Dugan was taken into custody by the FBI on Friday morning (Saturday AEST) on the courthouse grounds, according to a US Marshals Service spokesperson. She appeared briefly in federal court in Milwaukee later before being released from custody. She faces charges of “concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest” and obstructing or impeding a proceeding.

“Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,” her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, said during the hearing. He declined to comment to reporters following her court appearance.

Court papers suggest Dugan was alerted to the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the courthouse by her clerk, who was informed by an attorney that they appeared to be in the hallway.

The FBI affidavit describes Dugan as “visibly angry” over the arrival of immigration agents in the courthouse and says that she pronounced the situation “absurd” before leaving the bench and retreating to her chambers. It alleges she and another judge later approached members of the arrest team inside the courthouse, displaying what witnesses described as a “confrontational, angry demeanour”.

After a back-and-forth with officers over the warrant for the man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, she demanded that the arrest team speak with the chief judge and led them away from the courtroom, the affidavit says.

People gather to demonstrate against the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan outside the courthouse in Milwaukee.Credit: AP

After directing the arrest team to the chief judge’s office, investigators allege Dugan returned to the courtroom and was heard saying words to the effect of “wait, come with me” before ushering Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer through a jury door into a non-public area of the courthouse. The action was unusual, the affidavit says, because “only deputies, juries, court staff, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies used the back jury door. Defence attorneys and defendants who were not in custody never used the jury door”.

US Attorney-General Pam Bondi said the man was facing domestic violence charges and that victims were sitting in the courtroom with state prosecutors when the judge allegedly helped him escape immigration arrest.

The judge “put the lives of our law enforcement officers at risk. She put the lives of citizens at risk. A street chase – it’s absurd that that had to happen,” Bondi said on Fox News Channel.

US senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who represents Wisconsin, called the arrest of a sitting judge a “gravely serious and drastic move” that “threatens to breach” the separation of power between the executive and judicial branches.

“Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by,” Baldwin said in an emailed statement. “By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this president is putting those basic democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line.”

The Justice Department had previously signalled that it was going to crack down on local officials who thwarted federal immigration efforts.

The department in January ordered prosecutors to investigate for potential criminal charges any state and local officials who obstructed or impeded federal functions. As potential avenues for prosecution, a memo cited a conspiracy offence as well as a law prohibiting the harbouring of people in the country illegally.

AP

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