Will Incompetent Clown DOJ Convict Milwaukee Judge For 'Obstruction' Of ICE Nazis?
The DOJ hasn't had a stellar track record in these cases.
The federal trial got underway yesterday in the Trump administration’s effort to destroy the Milwaukee County judge who stood up to ICE deportation stormtroopers who were trying to nab a criminal defendant at a hearing in her courtroom. Judge Hannah Dugan faces a felony charge of “obstruction of a federal agency” and a misdemeanor count for “concealing a wanted person” after an April incident that the government is portraying as a sinister attempt to help a dangerous criminal escape justice. It’s one of the first cases to reach trial in which a government official has been accused of a crime for taking action the administration claims is a misuse of her position in opposition to the Glorious Ethnic Cleansing of America.
The defendant in Dugan’s courtroom that day was Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant charged with domestic violence (and entitled to his day in court). He was among the first wave of immigrants that ICE agents started grabbing as soon as they left court hearings, following the reversal of a longstanding DHS policy not to do deportation arrests at courthouses, churches, or schools.
Dugan is accused of doing serious crimes because instead of sending Flores-Ruiz out the front door of the courtroom, Dugan told the agents they’d need to go speak to the chief judge, in keeping with a draft policy from the chief judge. While some of the agents went to the chief judge’s office, two of the agents stayed out in the hallway. Dugan set a date for a future hearing where Flores-Ruiz would be able to appear by Zoom, then allowed the defendant and his attorney to leave via a “jury door” and private hallway that nonetheless opened onto the public hallway where agents were still waiting.
In fact, as an FBI agent acknowledged in testimony yesterday, Flores-Ruiz and his attorney walked right past the two agents, then they rode an elevator with a third agent down to the lobby. Only after Flores-Ruiz left the courthouse did the six-member Keystone Gestapo team move to arrest him; he tried to run and they grabbed him after a brief chase. He was deported last month, and ICE announced it with a statement depicting Judge Dugan as pretty much an accomplice.
As sneaky conspiracies to assist people fleeing Nazis go, this was not exactly The Great Escape or Von Ryan’s Express, though we can also be happy that Flores-Ruiz wasn’t gunned down by the guards at the last minute (spoiler alert for a WWII action movie that came out when I was three years old).
In an opening statement yesterday, Dugan’s defense attorney, Steven Biskupic, pointed out that if she had really been trying to conceal Flores-Ruiz from ICE, she could have directed him and his attorney to an enclosed stairwell that would have avoided the public hallway altogether. Instead, they exited the private hallway through a door just about 11 feet from where the agents were standing (and allowed him to pass). Biskupic pointed out that was less distance “than the width of your jury box.”
The ICEfucks who arrived at the courthouse planned to arrest Flores-Ruiz in the hall outside the courtroom because they didn’t have a signed judicial warrant for his arrest, just an administrative warrant that allowed them to nab him in public areas, but not to enter the courtroom.
The indictment against Dugan claimed that she “falsely” told federal agents that an administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient, but as Biskupic pointed out to the jury, Milwaukee’s chief judge had advised judges that an “ICE warrant does not compel courthouse personnel to cooperate,” and that Dugan was following the chief judge’s instructions on the law. The agents knew that too, and advised Dugan that they planned to arrest Flores-Ruiz in the hall after his hearing. Everyone was following orders, you might say.
The prosecution is painting Dugan as a friend of criminals who actively plotted to let a dangerous criminal go free, noting an audio recording in which Dugan and her court reporter spoke softly about the agents waiting outside the courtroom. At one point, Dugan could be heard saying “I’ll do it. … I’ll take the heat.”
The prosecution made a point of noting that Dugan was wearing her robe when she spoke to the ICE goons outside her courtroom, and added, “The judicial robes that the defendant wore that day do not put her above the law.” They contend that Dugan deliberately “divided” the arrest team, then sneakily planned for Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to sneak out down the inner stairwell. They didn’t explain why she didn’t point to it as they left and went the other way, to the door that would put them in the public hallway with the ICE guys.
Who, remember, did nothing when he walked past them, as Biskupic underlined. They also didn’t arrest him when they tailed his car to the courthouse, but waited until he was in the courtroom. (An agent testified that was only because it was safer, since courthouses screen for weapons.)
Biskupic pointed out that the agents watched their target walk right past them, then only gave chase after he departed the courthouse. Dugan certainly didn’t obstruct the agents, he noted, and neither did she instruct anyone else to interfere with them. “Judge Dugan is charged with obstructing a hallway arrest when the agents chose not to make that arrest in the hallway,” he said.
The trial continues today, and we’ll keep you up to date; it remains to be seen whether the government will get a conviction when so many grand juries and trial juries have refused to buy the government’s claim that anyone who opposes it is a criminal.
[All Rise / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (archive link) / Wisconsin Examiner]
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OT:
Hi, everybody.
If you don't think that the Trump Administration is directly harming people, look at this.
This is from an e-mail I just opened up. It's from the clinic where I go to the psychiatrist.
"What's Changing
Beginning January 1st, 2026, for patients with deductible-based insurance plans, we'll be collecting $75 per appointment toward your deductible until it's met. Once insurance processes your claim, any remaining deductible amount will be billed. After your deductible is satisfied, your insurance will cover a larger portion of costs, and you'll only pay your copay or coinsurance as outlined in your plan. We suggest putting a credit card on file, so there are no issues with cancelled appointments due to missed calls for payments on Telehealth appointments."
The co-pay used to be $10. I go about once every three or four months.
Yeah, focke. :(
Whether there is a conviction or not, they’ve once again succeeded in using the “justice” system to harass someone for the grave crime of doing their job in an appropriate and legal manner.