FBI arrests judge
This is Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan. Eduardo Flores Ruiz was on trial in her courtroom on domestic violence charges. He is also accused by the Federal government of being in the country illegally. So FBI and ICE officials came to arrest him during his trial. Judge Dugan then had him leave the courtroom through a side door, because apparently it never occurred to the feds that a large building like a courtroom might have more than one exit. The FBI responded by arresting Dugan Friday morning.
Both sides are in the right here. First, ICE was legally entitled to arrest Flores Ruiz. However, law enforcement agencies normally defer to each other, and if someone is on trial in one jurisdiction and wanted in another, arrangements are made to transfer them. Showing up to arrest Flores Ruiz during his trial was out of line, as the jury would have seen this and the judge would have had to call a mistrial. So Dugan was also entitled to maintain control of her courtroom and the integrity of the trial she was overseeing.
However, if anyone thinks clowns like Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, who are currently in charge of the FBI until Trump gets mad and fires them, were after anything other than publicity, you're very naive. In the right-wing echo chamber, this story is being spun as "liberal judge arrested for helping illegal immigrant escape ICE." What this really is, is a trial balloon. If the administration can get away with arresting judges in conflicted and ambiguous situations like this, the next step is arresting judges for decisions they don't like. When that happens, it won't be a high-profile one like Judge Boasberg or Judge Xinis. It will be an obscure case like one of the over 200 filed so far against this administration. What stops them is if the outcry is strident enough, like what happened with the tariffs, the attempts to deport pro-Palestinian protesters on student visas, and the deportation of accused gang members (and guys swept up by accident) to El Salvador. Notice that those programs are on hold. There hasn't been much attention on Judge Dugan's arrest, so I'm expecting the administration to escalate in this area.
Both sides are in the right here. First, ICE was legally entitled to arrest Flores Ruiz. However, law enforcement agencies normally defer to each other, and if someone is on trial in one jurisdiction and wanted in another, arrangements are made to transfer them. Showing up to arrest Flores Ruiz during his trial was out of line, as the jury would have seen this and the judge would have had to call a mistrial. So Dugan was also entitled to maintain control of her courtroom and the integrity of the trial she was overseeing.
However, if anyone thinks clowns like Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, who are currently in charge of the FBI until Trump gets mad and fires them, were after anything other than publicity, you're very naive. In the right-wing echo chamber, this story is being spun as "liberal judge arrested for helping illegal immigrant escape ICE." What this really is, is a trial balloon. If the administration can get away with arresting judges in conflicted and ambiguous situations like this, the next step is arresting judges for decisions they don't like. When that happens, it won't be a high-profile one like Judge Boasberg or Judge Xinis. It will be an obscure case like one of the over 200 filed so far against this administration. What stops them is if the outcry is strident enough, like what happened with the tariffs, the attempts to deport pro-Palestinian protesters on student visas, and the deportation of accused gang members (and guys swept up by accident) to El Salvador. Notice that those programs are on hold. There hasn't been much attention on Judge Dugan's arrest, so I'm expecting the administration to escalate in this area.
