Bulwark Takes - BREAKING: Trump's FBI Arrests Judge In Milwaukee

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

FBI agents arrested a Milwaukee judge for allegedly obstructing an immigration arrest in her courtroom. Tim Miller and Sam Stein break down what this shocking move means, how it fits into Trump’s broader strategy of intimidation, and why it could have a chilling effect on the justice system.  The Bulwark Tips Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan arrested, charged with 2 felonies in ICE case

Hey everybody, Tim Miller from The Bulwark here with Managing Editor Sam Stein. We have breaking news. FBI Director Kash Patel says that he has arrested a judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the charge of obstructing the arrest of an immigrant, an arrest, an FBI operation to arrest an immigrant, I guess, in her court. I'm going to read the tweet from Kash Patel that he's since deleted. So we'll get into that in a second. But he wrote, just now, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Duggan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on charges of obstruction after evidence of Judge Duggan obstructing an immigration arrest operation. We believe Judge Duggan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be

arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Ruiz, allowing the subject and a legal alien to evade arrest. Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he's been in custody since, but the judge's obstruction created increased danger to the public. We'll have more to share soon. So he tweeted that, then deleted it. It was unclear why, but I guess, Sam, now we have confirmation that this judge has been arrested. Yeah, we were all sort of confused about why he deleted it, which led to us wondering if it was real. Normally, you would have like sort of a coordinated announcement around this stuff. It's all very bizarre. But then Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a piece that says that the arrest was confirmed by a local U.S. Marshal Services, actually, sorry, D.C.

U.S. Marshal Services spokesperson for them said that she, this judge was arrested at 8 a.m. at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and is in federal custody. So just let that sink in. We have arrested a local judge and detained her in federal custody over immigration proceedings. I can't recall anything remotely like this. Yeah. I mean, obviously, like we're not going for more details to emerge before you get

into total speculation mode, but just like at the top level, like arresting a judge over not like some other private crime, but of their job, judging, something that is part of their work. Taking foreign bribes. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, sure. A judge that also happens to be a murderer or whatever. But this is a judge in the process of, we presume, judging work. So that is not arrest is the rest is that i think the allegation specifically is they tipped off a person who is going to be arrested by ice and tried to let this alleged uh target of the ice officials evade arrest and so that it's an obstruction charge now i'm not this is again

maybe a little bit beyond my expertise sending the f FBI after a judge over this, as opposed to sort of trying to adjud like we nabbed them. Like, you know, this, the idea of doing this as ostentatiously as possible, um, is, is also a choice. And it is. And I think that is what we can speak on, you know, with full information right now, because what they're trying to do here is intimidate people. They're trying to intimidate officers of court. They've already gone after lawyers representing undocumented migrants. And so they are trying to intimidate anybody that wants to give any aid and comfort to people that are in this country not illegally and like and and and this is like a huge shot across the bow yeah effort right and like that is what that is true and i think it's like unobvious and i think you have to put it in

the context of what's been happening for like past couple of weeks, which is the administration's had a series, not just a series,. These are liberal justices issuing nationwide injunctions. They've tried to, you know, challenge the idea of being able to do nationwide injunctions. And they've basically been trying to fight this through more or less PR and legal battles. And now this, to me, and it's being presented this way too, is them responding to the justice system by actually flexing real scary justice. Yeah, the power of their department of justice. Right, exactly. And so now you've pitted two parts of the justice system against each other. Yep.

No, there's no doubt about that. And I also think this is notable in the context of the Trump Time interview that came out this morning, because Trump was pressed by Time magazine about the way that he's defied the Supreme Court. And it's interesting that Trump's rhetoric on this is like he is almost trying to ratchet it down. Like he is hiding behind lawyers. And I think Trump thinks that the safe play here is to be like, you know, I'm just whatever my lawyers tell me.

Oh, if Kash Patel, if Pam Bondi says this judge needs to be arrested, oh, OK, nothing I can do. You know, I'm not like my hands tell me. Oh, if Kash Patel, if if Pam Bondi says this judge needs to be arrested. Oh, OK. Nothing I can do. You know, I'm not like my hands are clean on this one. Oh, if the Supreme Court says I got to bring back a Brigham Garcia. But but Pam Bondi and my lawyers say that they interpret it differently. Well, OK, I got enough. Right.

And so this is like the game Trump plays where they can intimidate. They can act extra judicially. And, and he is trying to like avoid like personal accountability for it by, by saying, okay, this is, this is, this is what those guys are doing. This is over there. Right. It's he, he gets a little bit of a shield right there. He's human shield. And so if this blows up in his face or in the administration's face, he'll just say, well, cash to, Cash just went ahead and did it. And who am I? I thought you guys didn't want me to interfere with the DOJ.

I thought you guys didn't want me to politicize. It's like I'm instructing you to investigate Chris Krebs in this case on one hand. But then on the other hand, when you guys go out and do something, I'm like, oh, I can't do anything about that. You know, like this is the way that he's trying to have it. I think it's important just to like be blunt about that so that, you know, to to kind of expose like how, you know, they're going to try to have it both ways. How does this play out from here? Right. Like, obviously, this judge is not is going to challenge her arrest. I mean, she's not going to like just say yeah you got me no and and the secondary question is how does the other courts react to this right like

there is sort of a fraternalism around the judicial system judges should in theory be appalled that one of their own was arrested uh but i am curious and also how does it go for more adjudication of local immigration cases, right? Like if you're a local judge and you're trying to figure out what the right thing to do is around the adjudication of this stuff, obviously they want you to think, well, the FBI might come knocking on your door if you go in the wrong direction. Here's what I think. I think that the judicial system will fight back and that we'll see a lot of pushback from judges. But here's what I also think will happen.

It's like a million different fires. There's going to be a chilling effect though. I just, there's going to be a chilling effect, man. I not, you know, there are great people out there who work for nonprofits, who advocate for migrant groups, who will not be, who will not be cowed by this, but there will be people that look at this and you're just like, you know, I can't, I'm not, I don't want to deal with the Trump DOJ. You know, if I'm housing an illegal migrant, if I'm doing something, I do think that there will that this that that is where they'll be successful. I think they will eventually lose. Again, we don't know the details of this particular case, but they will continue to lose these broader fights in the courts where they're breaking the Constitution.

But I think that they will succeed in the chilling effect and that's really well that's really bleak it's it's somewhat uh it's somewhat related here but the whole immigration thing there's like two parallel storylines going on and i think you hit on it one is like the big national headline stories abrigo garcia uh audrey or andrew uh the barber um and then and those are taking up 95% of the auction. But then the 5% is what's happening locally. The stuff like in Milwaukee. And that's actually more consequential in a way. Because this is where you're starting to see some really, you know, kind of nasty stuff.

And so someone passed on our tips line, which, by the way, using tips line is great. What is it called? Theborg.com slash tips. Thank you. What is it called? TheBorg.com slash tips. Thank you. I appreciate it. So there's a local story out of Dayton about a barber. This guy who has been here for decades, Honduran native. He's been here illegally, but forever he's had sort of an understanding with local officials where he would wear a monitoring bracelet as his asylum process went

through the system and this is so messed up but they basically said to him this is how it reads he says i just called rodriguez the guy and told him he didn't need his bracelet anymore and he should come to the blue ash kentucky office to have it removed what officials didn't tell him is that he would be arrested and sent to the butler county ohio jail where he's being held currently jail record show this is the stuff it's this local stuff i know it's horrible it's this local stuff that's happening all over the country now we're seeing it here and there and then of course in milwaukee now you have this confrontation this arrest of a judge this is what i think is like the real story and i think this is also what's contributing to a lot of the backlash against

trump is that people don't like this shit. I don't think normal Americans are like, yeah, let's have a judge get arrested by the FBI because they might have like tipped off, you know, someone here illegally. I think that stuff is the stuff that people recoil at. All right. Much more on this to come.

Our colleague Adrian Carrasquillo, who writes our immigration newsletter, which you guys can check out at theblog.com. We'll do more reporting on this. Yeah. our immigration newsletter, which you guys can check out at thebullock.com. We'll do more reporting on this. And yeah, send us tips if you guys have tips, thebullock.com slash tips. And we'll be talking to you all soon. Thanks, Sam. See you, everybody.

Thanks.