FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest of Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan on obstruction charges after she allegedly misdirected Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to help an illegal immigrant evade arrest.
Dugan was arrested on obstruction charges after she allegedly interfered with a federal immigration arrest inside her courtroom. “Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction,” Patel posted to X.
Dugan made an initial appearance Friday in Milwaukee federal court, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Dries ordered her release after prosecutors said they were not seeking her detention, according to her federal court docket. She is accused of obstructing a proceeding and concealing an undocumented immigrant, Mexico native Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, to prevent his arrest. She faces up to six years in prison.
Dugan was arrested by the FBI and is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, a spokesperson for USMS told the Washington Examiner. The official added that Dugan was arrested at about 8:30 a.m. local time near the Milwaukee County Courthouse. She was then transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals.
Her charges stem from an incident on April 18, in which ICE agents came to the courthouse with a warrant for the arrest of an illegal immigrant, and the FBI opened an investigation into whether Dugan helped the illegal immigrant avoid arrest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported earlier this week.
Dugan’s alleged conduct allowed the undocumented migrant to leave the courthouse for about 22 minutes before he was ultimately captured by immigration officials. Patel added that the judge’s actions “created increased danger to the public.”
Dugan allegedly directed officers away from Flores-Ruiz and then personally escorted him out a back door typically reserved for jurors and in-custody defendants, according to a 13-page criminal complaint released Friday.
The complaint states Dugan “became visibly angry” upon learning agents were waiting to arrest Flores-Ruiz and told them to report to the chief judge, claiming they needed a judicial warrant.
While officers complied, Dugan allegedly expedited Flores-Ruiz’s hearing and led him and his attorney through a nonpublic corridor to evade detention.
After realizing Flores-Ruiz had slipped away, federal agents “scrambled to locate” him outside the Milwaukee County Courthouse.
They spotted him near a flagpole and “identified themselves as law enforcement,” prompting Flores-Ruiz to “turn around and sprint down the street.”
Agents chased him “for the entire length of the courthouse” before apprehending him near W. State Street and 10th Street, where he was “handcuffed and detained.”
Patel deleted his initial 10:11 a.m. Eastern post on X and reposted the same announcement at 12:11 p.m. on Friday. Before it was reposted, Attorney General Pam Bondi, as well as spokespeople for various divisions of the Justice Department, confirmed the arrest took place.
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While it’s unclear why his post was temporarily removed, the latter announcement was identical and maintained that Dugan “intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested … allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest.”
More information will be forthcoming about Dugan, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals said.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
