The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation says agents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin have arrested a state circuit court judge on charges of obstructing immigration agents who went to her courtroom to arrest someone who was scheduled to appear there.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), FBI Director Kash Patel said Judge Hannah Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court was taken into custody on Friday based on what he described as “evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week.”
“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,” he said.
Patel added that the agents were able to take Ruiz into custody nonetheless but he also claimed that Judge Dugan had “created increased danger to the public” by what he called her “obstruction.”
The allegations leveled at Dugan, who has served on the Milwaukee County bench since 2016, appear to be based on claims made by a right-wing radio host, Dan O’Donnell, who on Tuesday posted on X that Dugan 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 previous Friday.
O’Donnell accused Dugan of allowing Ruiz, who was scheduled to be in her courtroom that day, to “hide in her jury room” after Ruiz’s attorney informed her court clerk of the impending arrest.
In a post on X following Patel’s announcement, O’Donnell took credit for the arrest and said it was based on his “exclusive report” from earlier in the week.
The talk show host also claimed that Dugan had “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.”
“In other words, she didn’t just hide him in her jury room, she altered official court records in an effort to protect him,” he added.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
