Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, Jan. 30, 2025.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
Federal agents arrested a Wisconsin judge on Friday after she allegedly helped an undocumented immigrant evade arrest.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced in an X post that Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan has been charged with obstruction for allegedly assisting Eduardo Flores Ruiz in avoiding arrest after he appeared in her courtroom last week.
Hannah Dugan speaks as she was seeking election to Milwaukee County Circuit Court during a forum at the Milwaukee Bar Association in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., March 15, 2016.
Mike De Sisti | Via Reuters
A U.S. Marshals Service spokeswoman confirmed to CNBC that Dugan was arrested at about 8:30 a.m. local time on courthouse property.
Dugan is in custody pending her planned presentment later Friday in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee on the obstruction charge, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Chief Judge Carl Ashley told NBC that the judicial code of conduct restricts him from commenting on the matter, but said Dugan’s court calendar “will be covered by another judge as needed.”
FBI Director Kash Patel on the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan.
FBIDirectorKash via X, formerly Twitter
The arrest of a judge marks a sharp escalation in the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to remove undocumented immigrants from the U.S.
Patel in his tweet wrote that the FBI believes Dugan “intentionally misdirected federal agents away” from Ruiz as agents were attempting to arrest him at her courthouse.
“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,” Patel said in the post.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Tuesday that the FBI was looking into Dugan’s conduct surrounding an attempted arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at her courthouse on April 18.
ICE agents have previously arrested people in the courthouse hallways in March and April, according to the Journal Sentinel.
ICE did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. A person who answered a call to Dugan’s chambers declined to comment.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to NBC, “The days of actively aiding and abetting illegal aliens invading our country are over.”
“The Trump administration will never waver on putting Americans and America First with a no-nonsense approach to immigration enforcement. In this administration, anyone who commits crimes exposes themselves to criminal liability,” Desai said.
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