Wisconsin Judge Arrested By FBI Accused Of Helping Undocumented Immigrant ‘Evade Arrest’

A Wisconsin judge was arrested and charged with helping an undocumented immigrant “evade arrest,” according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested on obstruction charges, Patel said Friday in a post on X that he later deleted and then posted again a couple hours later.

“The FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction ― after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week,” Patel said in part.

The charges stem from an April 18 incident in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials entered the Milwaukee County Courthouse with a warrant for 30-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz.

Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was in court for three counts of misdemeanor battery from a March 12 fight. The FBI alleges that Dugan helped Flores-Ruiz escape ICE custody.

“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’s post read.

The post added that there would be “more to share soon.”

Sources told the Milwaukee Sentinel that Dugan directed ICE agents to Chief Judge Carl Ashley’s office and then allegedly helped Flores-Ruiz leave through a side door, down a private hallway and into a public area.

Flores-Ruiz was arrested by ICE a short time later.

An affidavit filed Thursday by the FBI alleges Dugan “became visibly angry” at seeing ICE agents in the courthouse and allegedly commented that the situation was “absurd.”

The affidavit alleges Dugan directed Flores-Ruiz to leave her courtroom through a door meant only for jurors. Flores-Ruiz returned to the courthouse’s public hallway before he and his lawyer took an elevator down and exited the courthouse, according to the affidavit.

Although there was a DEA agent in the elevator with Flores-Ruiz and his attorney at the time, “Flores-Ruiz and his attorney spoke to each other in Spanish, which DEA Agent A did not understand,” the affidavit reads.

Outside the courthouse, agents located Flores-Ruiz and went to apprehend him.

“Flores-Ruiz turned around and sprinted down the street,” the affidavit against Dugan alleges. “A foot chase ensued. The agents pursued Flores-Ruiz for the entire length of the courthouse and ultimately apprehended him.”

Dugan appeared in federal court Friday before being released from custody, The Associated Press reported. Her next court appearance is May 15.

“Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest,” her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, said during the hearing. “It was not made in the interest of public safety.”

Mastantuono declined to speak to reporters following the hearing, AP reported. Dugan previously declined to speak to reporters about the investigation.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, condemned the Trump administration’s attacks on the judiciary in a Friday statement.

“Unfortunately, we have seen in recent months the president and the Trump administration repeatedly use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level, including flat-out disobeying the highest court in the land and threatening to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor,” he wrote.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) called the arrest of Dugan a “gravely serious and drastic move.”

“In the United States, we have a system of checks and balances and separations of power for damn good reasons,” Baldwin’s statement said in part. “The President’s administration arresting a sitting judge is a gravely serious and drastic move, and it threatens to breach those very separations of power. Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a Democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by.”