The only question is how we defeat this!
| DEAN OBEIDALLAH APR 26, 2025 |
Donald Trump and his rogue regime have just taken their next step in embracing fascism with the arrest Friday of Wisconsin state Judge Hannah Dugan on BS charges. And that’s not just my view, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen wrote in response to Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi vowing more arrests of judges who defy Trump: “This is what fascism looks like.”
Judge Dugan’s arrest by Trump’s FBI cannot be viewed in a vacuum. It’s part of Trump and the GOP’s efforts to re-envision the United States as an autocratic nation.
Over Trump’s first 100 days, he has sought to turn the United States into a nation that resembles far-right Hungary led by his ally Viktor Orban–on the way to transforming our nation into the North American version of Putin’s Russia. Trump has utilized the power of federal government to target and punish any who defy him including law firms, the Democratic online fundraising platform Act Blue, media outlets, foreign college students, green card holders who dare criticize Trump policies and more. With the arrest of a sitting judge, we now have our first U.S. citizen political prisoner under the Trump regime.
Interestingly, it was just two days before the bone chilling arrest of Judge Dugan that Freedom House—an organization created in 1941 to monitor freedoms worldwide—published an article titled, “Justice in Shackles: The Global Persecution of Judges and Lawyers.” They warned that, “around the world, autocrats are detaining, prosecuting, and imprisoning legal and judicial professionals as part of a larger assault on the rule of law.” The focus was nations such as Russia, China, Turkey and Myanmar who have arrested lawyers who represented those the regime had targeted and arrested judges who stood up to them. We can now add the United States to the list of those rogue nations.
To be clear, the arrest of Judge Duggan is about sending a message that if you defy the Trump regime you will be criminally prosecuted. For starters, the FBI arrested the judge in public while she was walking into her courthouse. Obviously, they could’ve coordinated with her counsel a voluntarily surrender but they wanted a very public spectacle to intimidate others. That is why Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley slammed this public arrest as a “large performative showing of law enforcement officials” and accused the Trump administration of trying to “instill fear and hostility across our community.”
When you examine the facts of the case it’s less than flimsy as legal experts including former federal prosecutors have noted. The incident occurred on April 18 when Trump regime officials from ICE and other agencies came to the courthouse where Judge Dugan sits to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz–an undocumented immigrant who and was appearing before the judge on a criminal case. The FBI agent’s affidavit submitted in support of the two charges against Judge Dugan tell us that when the judge heard that ICE officers were there, she approached them and asked a very important legal question: “If Deportation Officer A had a judicial warrant.” “Deportation Officer A responded, “No, I have an administrative warrant. Judge DUGAN stated that Deportation Officer A needed a judicial warrant.”
After back and forth on whether this type of warrant could be executed in a courthouse, she directed the agents to see the Chief Judge of the county—which some did while other agents remained in the hallway outside the courtroom.
The FBI claims that the Judge later directed Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to go into the jury area to the side of the courtroom which they dubbed as a “non-public” area. Some time later, the lawyer and Flores-Ruiz exited the courtroom by way of a door in the jury area into a public hallway. When Flores-Ruiz exited into the hallway, he was immediately observed by federal officers—as the FBI agent wrote–who pursued him and arrested Flores-Ruiz after a short chase outside the courthouse.
These are the facts that led the Trump regime to charge the judge with two federal crimes: “Obstruction” of in an investigation in violation of 18 U.S. Code Section 1505 and “Concealing person from arrest” in violation of 18 U.S. Code Section 1071.
But immediately legal experts raised questions about the lack of evidence presented. First, there is no showing the judge had the “intent” required to prosecute a person for obstruction or for concealing a person from arrest. If the judge had smuggled the defendant out through say a private door to a garage only judges could use and drove him out—or put them on an elevator the public can’t use– that would be a different story. Instead, in this case the lawyer and his client simply exited into a public hallway where federal officers were waiting and immediately observed him.
And from a legal point of view, the judge’s question about whether ICE had a “judicial” or “administrative” warrant is very relevant. A judicial arrest warrant is one signed by a judge after assessing the evidence. Instead, ICE had an administrative warrant which is not signed by a judge but rather by an ICE agent which has less legal force. The judge raised good faith questions about that as even the FBI affidavit notes when she told the ICE agents you need a “judicial warrant” to arrest someone in a courthouse.
This is why Melinda Brennan, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin responded, “These actions are transparently meant to be chilling, cruel and undermining the rule of law.” Christopher Wellborn, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, reacted with alarm to the judge’s arrest saying American democracy “rests upon the independence of the judiciary”—and this arrest undermines that.
And numerous Democrats including Reps. Jamie Raskin, Mark Pocan and more slammed the arrest. Wisconsin U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin released a fiery statement that noted, “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.” She continued, “By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this President is putting those basic Democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line.”
In just the first 100 days under the Trump regime look where we are: lawyers punished, a judge arrested, media outlets under investigation for negative coverage of Trump, people deported with no due process, green card holders deported for criticizing Trump policies and more. “It”-as in fascism—is happening here. The only question is: How do we crush it?!
