FBI arrests Wisconsin judge for allegedly obstructing ICE arrest at her courthouse

The FBI has arrested a state circuit court judge in Wisconsin over her alleged obstruction of immigration agents' attempt to arrest someone scheduled to appear in her courtroom, Bureau Director Kash Patel announced Friday.

In a now-deleted post to X, Patel said that Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan had been charged and taken into custody Friday because of "evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week,” per The Independent. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported earlier this week that the FBI was looking into whether the jurist, who has served on the bench since 2016, had tried to assist an undocumented immigrant evade an Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest.

“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest,” Patel said, adding that ICE officers had still arrested Ruiz and claiming that Dugan had "created increased danger to the public."

The allegations against Dugan follow right-wing radio host Dan O'Donnell's Tuesday "exclusive," posted on X, that the judge was under investigation “for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant defendant evade ICE agents who came to arrest him in her courtroom during a hearing” the Friday before. O'Donnell claimed that she had allowed Ruiz to "hide in her jury room" after being informed of his impending arrest and made "that hearing off the record in an attempt to hide from ICE the fact that the illegal would be in her courtroom that day.”

Dugan's arrest is not the first time the Justice Department has taken a jurist into custody for allegedly obstructing an enforcement action. In President Donald Trump's first term, Massachusetts State District Court Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph and a court officer were indicted in 2019 on charges that they had prevented an ICE officer from arresting a man by letting him out of a back door rather than into the lobby, according to The New York Times. Under President Joe Biden, however, the DOJ dropped the charges against both Joseph and the officer after reaching an agreement with the accused.