At the end of April, federal agents wrongly arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, claiming that she obstructed ICEtapo agents from arresting an immigrant, Eduardo Flores Ruiz. She pulled off this nefarious deed by letting Flores Ruiz out a side door that led to the public hallway where the jackboots were waiting. She then she somehow apparently used psychic powers by telling the jackboots that Flores Ruiz wasn’t the immigrant they were looking for. Then she cast a magic spell putting a force field around Flores Ruiz that allowed the jackboots to follow him, ride down the elevator with him and still almost lose him.
The feds, including Kash Patel and Pamela Blondie immediately took to Xitter to show pictures of a handcuffed Dugan being perp-walked with the caption of “No one is above the law,” except for the current administration. They were putting on all the theatrics to try to influence the court of public opinion, since they know that their case is so weak. Their efforts to smear Dugan were bolstered when the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan from her duties, even though they did so merely as an administrative action and in no way was a punitive measure.
On Tuesday, their efforts paid off and a federal grand jury indicted Judge Dugan. It is important to remember that the threshold to get an indictment is a lot lower than it is to get a conviction, such as happened to Trump – 34 times. As Judge Sol Wachtler said: “A grand jury would “indict a ham sandwich” if that’s what you wanted.”
It should also be noted that normal procedure is to get the grand jury indictment and then arrest and charge the subject. But since this is not really a criminal case but a show of force in order to try to intimidate other judges, they chose not to follow normal procedures.
Dugan has been busy, and has a powerhouse legal team on her side:
Leading Dugan’s legal team is Steven Biskupic, the former U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Wisconsin from 2002 to 2009. Republican President George W. Bush selected Biskupic, who oversaw a series of public high-profile corruption and police misconduct cases, including the convictions of seven Milwaukee police officers in the beating of Frank Jude Jr. Biskupic was a career prosecutor before his term as U.S. attorney. He is now in private practice.
The most prominent member of the defense team is former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, a Cedarburg native. As solicitor general from 2005 to 2008, Clement argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Clement, a conservative who was appointed by former Republican President George W. Bush, currently represents the law firm WilmerHale, which is suing the Trump administration after it was targeted by an executive order. Clement has been dubbed by some “the LeBron James of lawyers.”
Dugan is scheduled to enter a plea on Thursday at a court date that was set when she had been arrested. She had already pleaded not guilty, and I would expect that to stay the same.
UPDATE: On Wednesday morning, Dugan filed a motion for dismissal based on judicial immunity and on the Tenth Amendment:
The motion makes two arguments: that Judge Dugan cannot be prosecuted because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts and that prosecutors were exceeding federal authority in the case.
In support of the immunity claim, the motion cites a U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving then former-President Donald Trump.
“Judges are entitled to absolute immunity for their judicial acts, without regard to the motive with which those acts are allegedly performed,” the motion says.
In addition to immunity, the motion says the prosecution violates the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which covers states’ rights. It argues the charges are a federal overreach.
My only question is if she says that she is running for president, will all the legal proceedings be suspended indefinitely? It seems that there is some precedence for that happening.